Art Expo India

A spotlight on the RPG Academy of Art & Music

2012-01-29T19:34:00.000-08:00

Traversing the boundaries of business, RPG Enterprises has enhanced its reputation as a socially committed organization. The group generously contributes toward the welfare of various meaningful social causes. It is actively simultaneously involved in promotion of the sports and arts through RPG Academy of Art & Music.

The academy has been a great promoter of art and music ventures. It endorses and promotes thriving Indian art scene by sponsoring significant art exhibits, including ‘Amazing, 2008, featuring 27 young and established artists; ‘Sacred Space’ (2004); RPG Collection of Contemporary Bengal Art, The NGMA, Mumbai (2003); ‘Mela: A Carnival of Indian Art (2002); ‘Self-Portraits & Bombay Artists- Progressive Perspectives’ (2001); ‘The Flashback- Flashforward’ (1999); ‘The Bombay Show’ (1998); ‘50 Years of Freedom of Expression (1997); ‘The Mother Theresa Exhibition’ (1996); and an exhibition of modern paintings & sculptures in Mumbai in 1995, among others.

RPG Academy of Art & Music continues to support and encourage upcoming and talented artists. The idea is to bring real talent to the fore. Another prime example of their commitment to the cause is the annual RPG Art Camp, one among the most eagerly awaited art gatherings in Indian art calendar. The academy has been organizing the camps since 1991.

The event was launched more than two decades ago. Explaining the secret of the art camp’s success, art collector and entrepreneur Harsh Goenka had mentioned: "I think over the years, Vickram (Sethi) and I have worked out a definitive agenda to make it an eclectic mix where senior artists can guide the younger lot; we've also worked to lend more gender diversity to the camp, and over the years international artists of repute have been participating in this event."

Ever year established and emerging artists from across the country and abroad assemble at the RPG beach house at Mumbai’s magnificent Marve Beach for a week. The interactions and discussions between senior and younger artists lead to amazing creative expressions. The relaxed habitat only enhances the creative quality of their wonderful works.

How and why informal settings inspire artists?

2012-01-28T19:23:00.000-08:00

Art camps in informal settings across India and abroad have become extremely popular within the artistic fraternity. Soaking in the exotic settings to maximize their creativity is a concept that finds favor with most artists since they are able to talk art, and exchange ideas without any inhibitions. No surprise, several Indian contemporary artists regularly feature in them.

The RPG Academy of Art & Music been holding an annual art camp at Marve Beach, Mumbai since 1991, where young and old artists from across the country come together to interact with each other. The 2012 art camp just concluded in the serene settings of Marve, a beach town in North Mumbai.

The eclectic event is hosted by group chairman and art aficionado, Harsh Goenka, and Vikram Sethi, the director of The Arts Trust. The two art aficionados have carefully nurtured the concept over time. It’s an annual meet which allows artists from different generations, genres, regions and styles to come together to share ideas and paint as well. Apart from senior artists, many young and upcoming ones are invited to give them a chance to interact with senior artists.

The gathering constitutes a perfect setting for painters to create some inspiring masterpieces. The participating artists live and paint together for seven days at the camp. They are specially selected and invited from across the country. As the practitioners of different generations, varying thought processes and styles come together, they are able to learn a few things from each other' albeit inadvertently.

In a way they seek inspiration from each other and engage in a gamut of art-related activities. Every year, they are asked to do self-portraits besides the works of their choice. The broad purpose is to provide the artists with a liberated environment, closeness to nature, and most importantly, the confluence of creative capabilities, which sure has been served over the years at the RPG art camp.

One of India’s top art events is back

2012-01-27T00:33:00.000-08:00

The collector base of India is also increasing. A large majority of them look forward to both Art Expo India and India Art Fair (formerly India Art Summit). The events are among the most widely attended and also the most popular art displays. The fair is building on its popularity and scale to capitalize on one of the world's fastest expanding economies and also to cater a large base of HNIs (high net-worth individuals).

Launched in 2008, the 3rd Edition of India Art Fair (previously known as India Art Summit) recorded over a hundred thousand visitors from all top cities in India and more than 65 cities around the world. Out of the total 84 galleries that took part, not less than 34 were international galleries – almost double the number that featured in the previous edition, bringing a fine blend of international and domestic flavor.

Signifying the buoyancy and vibrancy of Indian art market, the 4th Edition of India Art Fair takes place from 25 January, 2012 until 29 January at New Delhi’s spacious NSIC Exhibition Grounds. As always, its organizers are committed to enhancing its scale and the quality of art on offer with the aim of delivering an enriching art experience to the visitors.

Key Highlights from India Art Summit 2011

1,28,000 visitors over 4 days from 17 cities in India, and 67 cities around the world
84 galleries exhibited from 20 countries in 8000 sq mtr. of exhibition space
About 80% of galleries sold more than 4-5 works, with some galleries selling
out completely
Speakers’ Forum included 42 world renowned experts from India and overseas like Homi Bhabha, Anish Kapoor, Geeta Kapur, Sheena Wagstaff, Hou Hanru and Hans Ulrich Obrist.
37 media partners including leading global media like Financial Times, The Art Newspaper, Flash Art International and Canvas
Marketing and Public Relations worth over Rs. 19 Crores (US $4.1 million) covering India and 180 countries

The new edition again puts the focus firmly on the fast growing contemporary Indian art market. In the last edition, almost all the galleries reported brisk sales, as the fair attracted an impressive number of aspiring collectors. The 4th edition promises to see a greater number of collectors, artists, galleries and audiences from India and across the globe.

A glance at of India Art Fair organizers

2012-01-26T11:18:00.000-08:00

Neha Kirpal is the Founder and Fair Director of India Art Fair which she started in 2008. Over the last three editions, she has grown the art fair to new heights, expanding it both in scale and scope. Under her direction, the last edition of the fair drew in over 128,000 visitors from around the world, making it one of the most attended public art fairs in the world. She has over a decade of experience in the creative industries, marketing and event management both in India and the UK, which has helped her gain an intrinsic understanding of different markets and develop a truly global perspective for her current and future businesses. Neha Kirpal currently lives and works in New Delhi.

Will Ramsay: After leaving the British Army, Will Ramsay founded a gallery in 1996 in London, then an art fair business which now encompasses Affordable Art Fair, Pulse Art Fair, Art Hong Kong and now India Art Fair, which he is very excited about! Will runs 17 annual art fairs, in London, Bristol, New York, Miami, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Paris, Brussels, Milan, Singapore, Hong Kong and, last but certainly not least, Delhi! The Affordable Art Fair has been selected by CoolBrands as one of the 500 coolest brands in the UK.

Sandy Angus: He was born in India where his family had lived for over 80 years. He is Chairman of Montgomery Worldwide an internationally renowned group of exhibition organizing companies with offices and events on all 5 continents. Montgomery were involved in creating art fairs in Los Angeles and London and currently run the World Photography Organization, which puts on the Sony World Photography Awards. A collector of contemporary art and a founder shareholder of Art Hong Kong, he is actively involved in the successful hosting of India Art Fair as a shareholder which he regards as completing the circle of his family's involvement on the sub-continent.

World-renowned singer-artist debuts in India

2012-01-25T06:26:00.000-08:00

A dazzling and diminutive diva, now just 78-year-old, Yoko Ono has moved on from music to fine arts. She is in India for her new exhibition series, entitled ‘Our Beautiful Daughters’. This is only her second visit to the country, the first one incidentally in the late 1960s, after marrying to John Lennon.

According to Ono, her experiments in the early 1960s with the avant-garde in NY were influenced by John Cage, La Monte Young and other musicians, apart from artist George Maciunas. Her early art practice involved installations like ‘the Eternal Time clock’, a piece with just a seconds hand put in a plastic bubble.

The central piece of her new show at New Delhi’s Vadehra Art Gallery, entitled ‘Remember Us’, is a large-scale installation with wooden coffins that bear disembodied girls & women. It has been made in collaboration with a Bikaner (Rajasthan)-based women’s crafts group. It apparently addresses the peculiar gender issues in India. She has been engaged with the socially sensitive subject for quite some time. The work is a sort of a tribute to common Indian women, who hold their own in spite of suffering and discrimination.

Ono is happy and pleasantly surprised by the fact that she has come across many intelligent and influential young women. Her instruction-based works, six of them, depend solely on the viewer participation. For instance, ‘My Mommy Is Beautiful’ invites them to write what they felt about their mothers. ‘Soprano’ asks them to yell ‘against the wind, against the wall, and against the sky’ into a microphone.

A parallel display, called ‘The Seeds’, documents her earlier works to give a contextual framework. Simultaneously, public art projects spread across 20 venues in Delhi, accompany the show, her well-travelled ‘Wish Trees’. Having branched out from the wishes strung in most Japanese temples, the ‘Wish Trees’ have made to different countries of the world since the 1990s. Her performance ‘To India, with Love’ was another highlight of her show and a memorable visit to India.

An international training program for India’s museum professionals

2012-01-24T09:33:00.000-08:00

In what can be termed as a first-of-its-kind move, which will allow India’s museum professionals to equip themselves with best practices and tools in the domain, an international training program has just been launched.

The five-month long Leadership Training Program is aimed at training both senior and mid-level museum officials from all across the country. The project is being executed with support and active involvement of the British Museum experts. An experts’ team is led by Neil MacGregor, the world-renowned institution's director.

The comprehensive program is part of the reform agenda of Union Ministry of Culture in the domain of archeology and conservation. Its idea is to put a core group of museum professionals in close touch and meaningful interaction with the very best in the world in order to help groom a solid base of professionals, who will then pass on the inputs by others in the field.

The Minister of Culture, Kumari Selja, feels that such broad-based knowledge dissemination exercises will give a much-desired thrust to the process of grooming trained professionals at India's top museums that have suffered thus far owing to lack of skilled staff apart from their failure to maintain fast-evolving international standards, hampering their management.

This has also adversely affected the performance and hence public image of museums in the country. There are also plans in the offing to understand their problems so as to customize the training program in keeping with their specific needs. The long-term goal is to give them freedom to let them take their own decisions at some stage.

The initial training session as part of this international training program for India’s museum professionals took place in the third week of January in New Delhi, involving up to 20 professionals drawn from a dozen or so museums. . It's to be followed by a session in March in London and the concluding session in May in Mumbai.

‘Metamorphosing Female: Roots Emerge Upwards’

2012-01-23T09:08:00.000-08:00

The highly evocative and subtly portrayed figures form part of a solo show by Sonia Mehra Chawla that takes place at the Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi. It’s a sequel to her solo at Galerie Beck and Eggeling in Germany, last year. The current suite of works comprises canvases, video projections and digital prints.

“The graphic patterns on the canvas are apparently inspired by and drawn from 18th and 19th century microphotogrpahs, and diagrammatic representations of single-celled organisms, which occur in the ocean. A press release elaborates: “These cross-sections appear highly complex and ornamental for such base creatures. The artist has selected fragments from this realm to reveal evolutionary mechanics, representing the upward growth of species wherein single celled creatures are the bottom-most whereas human beings right at the top”.

Peeping into the artist’s philosophy and processes, art critic Deeksha Nath mentions: “The process of compounded growth is central to Sonia’s work as she delves for inspiration into the extremely personal and transformative experience of becoming a mother. The group of works, which shares the title ‘Some Roots Grow Upwards’, urges the audience to believe that while the woman in peacefully tending to her plants she is being ‘fertile’ in both senses of the word and as she nurtures and nourishes the plant so also she does the child to be.

“If we are to consider ‘roots’ and thus the deleuzian structure of interconnectedness as being organic and ‘un-grid-like’ with a central point from which spring almost uncharted paths then in Sonia’s work this would be the woman-mother-nuturer. This is articulated as such in the video installation Becoming Light. A multiplicity of women at various stages in their life has selected verses from Nandita Jaishankar’s poetry to reflect and thereby transmit their essential thoughts and experiences.”

In essence, Sonia Mehra Chawla comes across as a sensitive artist who through her subtle portrayal brings out how the fragile female body is ephemeral and vulnerable – akin to a site of memory, history, and transformation, even as it continues with its mundane chores, yet registering all shades of emotions, and carrying the marks.

Painterly meditation on the passage of nature’s cycle in a woman’s life

2012-01-23T03:11:00.000-08:00

The woman is at the center of love and life cycles, growth and decay – the various emotions and stages of her life in a new series of works by one of India’s emerging and talented female artists. Their focus is on the female form, indulging in a sort of meditation on the passage of nature’s cycle, temporal flow and regeneration.

The images are at once macabre and degenerate, generative and sensuous, as well as opulent and awe-inspiring. Within them, they carry the vulnerability of decay and the vitality of the living.

There is also a set of small works based on the video that reinforce the feminine position. Explaining the basis of the series on view at the New Delhi-based Palette Art Gallery, writer Deeksha Nath notes in an essay: “Julia Kristeva has written that with the beginning of motherhood, she becomes passionate about herself. This passion for self manifests in an inward ‘looking’ that is a turning away from the outside stimulants of man-lover-world towards the growing fetus-baby-child.

"Motherhood is in some ways outside of the woman’s control; it’s characterized by instability, it happens to the organism not the subject (that is the ‘self-aware thinking person’): it happens but I’m not there. It is the unspoken, almost unimaginable that allows me to view the Transient Hyperbloom series as quite complicated, the petals, algae, coral patterning evokes ideas of decay in its application on the facial skin.”

A video and sound installation has in its wordy monologues, austere costumes and movements, dramatic lighting, pregnant silences and meaningful gazes a sort of cross between Greek tragedy), Rembrandt’s paintings, instances from the extensive visual tradition, especially European, of women as muse and the visual gestures and evocative translations of mime.

The piece of work is choppy and disturbing, because in that immersive space surrounded by the three screens, multiple audios and populated by the histories, memories, stories, vulnerabilities and desires of so many unknown women the viewer becomes the one watched and observed.

It forces you to confront your own anxieties but robs you of the language with which to articulate a personal narrative because the words attack you, enter you and take over your own voice, the critic-writer observes. What does it feel like, to have no voice? Can you hear your thoughts amidst the cacophony? What does it feel like to be a vessel, a channel? What does it feel like to experience uncontrollable change? What does it feel like to be consistently human? These are the questions to ponder over for us...

An artist who combines print making techniques, photographic references and painting

2012-01-22T15:07:00.000-08:00

Thought provoking works by Sonia Mehra Chawla encapsulate and inculcate the ever-fluid essence of the organic. The ambiguous, hybrid forms often suggest the generative and the sensuous. She employs a wide array of media and forms with an aim to focus on the purging of biodiversity, biomorphic patterning, often relating the urban with the organic in complex layering.

The mixed media artist has developed a style uniquely her own combining print making techniques, photographic references and painting using acrylic paints, oils and inks. Born in 1977, Kolkata (West Bengal), she completed her BFA and MFA in Painting from College of Art, New Delhi in 2001 and 2004 respectively. She has worked extensively in etching and lithography - first under eminent Indian printmaker Anupam Sud and then at Atelier 2221, Print and Edition studio.

A Gold Medalist (MFA) from College of Art and University of Delhi (2004), she was one of the youngest recipients of the National Award in Painting from the Lalit Kala Akademi in 2005, apart from Ravi Jain Memorial Fellowship Award courtesy Dhoomimal Gallery, Delhi (2003); and National Finalist, Nokia Asia-Pacific Arts Award in 2000. Some of her residency/studio based programs are 'Identity and Masquerade', studio-based practice at Tate Modern, London, 'Khirkee Ki Khoj', a studio based project at Khoj Artists Organization, and a year-long residency and at Atelier 2221.

Apart from her recent show at Galerie Beck & Eggeling in 2011, the artist's other prominent exhibitions are ‘Urban Biomorphic’, Visual Arts Gallery, India Habitat Centre, Delhi; ‘The Second Sex: India’, Woman artist exhibition, 10 Chancery Lane Gallery, Hong kong; ‘The Way We Are’, Viart Gallery, Delhi; SH Contemporary 08’, Shanghai; ‘Emerging Directions’ by Apparao Galleries, Gorbio, France; ‘Beyond Boundaries’, The Gallery In Cork Street, Mayfair, London; ‘Live Wire’, Visual Arts Centre, Hong Kong; ‘World One Minutes’, Today Art Museum, Beijing; ‘Art Dubai’ (all in 2008).

Other important exhibits include ‘Identity and Masquerade’, The Photographers Gallery, London (2006-2007);‘India-Asia: Changing Paradigms’, Cologne, Germany (2005); ‘Path/ Progression/ Digressions’, Air Gallery, London (2005);‘Moving Image’ courtesy Royal Netherlands Embassy (2004); ‘Carry on Drawing’, Serpentine Gallery, London (2004); 47th National Exhibition of Art, LKA; AIFACS Platinum Jubilee show, Delhi (2003).

‘Perception of patterns & complexities demands history, memory plus a computation.’

2012-01-21T21:18:00.000-08:00

Prayas Abhinav’s section (This & this) as part of his joint show with Baiju Parthan at The Guild comprises his individual as well as collaborative works tread in the spaces along the follow thought lines as explained in an accompanying note:

“Characters in the global pipelines of information flow are not simple-minded anymore. Multi-faced, holographic personas are now the model. The poetry of this game of smoke and mirrors is performed with a zest shared on all the sides of the fence: the agents and the actors.

Courtship is now a cinematic experience, a kind of biding time for another; a cinema which is performed as much on the screen as in our memory. These times are like any other and also with our capacity to dream things which we cannot understand, tangents of progression can go anywhere. This is a pattern which is not genetic; it is accidental and algorithmic at the same time - generative with a history.

Perception of patterns and complexities demands history, memory and a computation. This processing is a learnt characteristic for our epoch and species. The instruction line is the instant, the moment where dimensions get compiled into our experience. This is where resistance is. What I see is different from what you see. To unravel the onionskins of the apparitions is where the decay starts. That is when the static sets in," Prayas Abhinav emphasizes.

There are two approaches for dealing with perceptual drift in this exhibition. Questions not easily answered, and questions not asked often enough as they inspire the delirium of division by zero. An impossibility.

The prevailing conditions of art requires the vocalization of intent in a way that demands itself to be treated as a singular reality. Besides being a paradox, this is often a too heavy a burden to carry. To escalate a crescendo and then to climb down... as a part of the same performance, is a balancing act.

Perception is trained by illusions. Agreements, negotiations, deals happen between faculties to establish the most basic ways of looking at the world. When this deal-making is challenged in the most radical ways, we experience things that we cherish. In this game, playing by the rules is not playing at all. Not that there are any rules to speak of, really. Every time the smoke clears and the dust settles there is a re-calibration happening.

We are talking of scales which do not have any markings. Scales which are not imposed but are discovered to be existing. The discovery of each such scale is either becoming a part of a weave we call truth or adding to the violence and disarray of our confusion. That is the pendulum we must swing on.

(Information & image courtesy: The Guild)

The RPG Art Camp 2012

2012-01-21T04:12:00.000-08:00

One of India’s leading newspapers, The Hindustan Times, carried a report on The RPG art camp, aptly describing it as an art jamboree of sorts, courtesy chairman of RPG Enterprises and art connoisseur, Harsh Goenka, along with the chairman of Arts Trust, Vickram Sethi. Both have been pooling in their artistic resources since 1991 to put together this keenly awaited event.

Starting off as an art sanctuary for as few as eight artists, the event has now grown into a calendar-marked affair that features more than 20 artists. Providing further details of the event, writer Megha Mahindru mentions: “The six-day long camp will see works created by 23 artists, expressing their signature styles on canvas at an idyllic bungalow outside city limits. Those participating this year are veterans like Anjolie Ela Menon and Paresh Maity and young talents like Viraj Naik. Besides creating new artworks during their stay, the artists also discuss and interact with art lovers at the end of the camp.”

“Like families catch up at weddings, the RPG art camp is an annual meet that allows artists from across generations to come together, share ideas, learn and create. We have Kim Seola, who is a Korean artist, though she has been residing in India for two years. “Money is not our driving force. It’s the experience. There are times when we haven’t sold a single piece, but the experience has been enriching,” Sethi has been quoted as saying.

Harsh Goenka’s beach house in Marve gets transformed into an artist residency during this period. “Anjolie is the grandma of the camp. She has been a great guiding force for us since the beginning. The art camp is a great place that allows creative energies to flow, but artists are touchy people with big egos, and Anjolie has the tact to take care of any tiffs that may arise during the creative residency,” adds Sethi.

The camp concluded on January 21.

‘Variable Operatives’ at The Guild India

2012-01-21T01:43:00.000-08:00

The Guild Art Gallery presents a new joint show, entitled ‘Variable Operatives’, featuring Baiju Parthan and Prayas Abhinav.

An introduction to the former’s section, Vector, asks: “Is virtuality an escalation of the real, augmented and exponentially raised to the nth power? Or is it the antinomic twin gradually and stealthily devouring its sibling…?”

Quoting French theorist Paul Virilio (“The invention of the ship is also the invention of the shipwreck.”) it refers to the artworks as located at the interstice of the ethereal virtual and the objective real. The suggested motif - Reality is essentially an epiphenomenon by virtue of it being an interpretation of sensory data filtered through cultural and gender bias and virtuality the inevitable effervescence a probable dystopian adjunct modifying the real, it adds.

These art objects are collision points aimed at presenting the erosion of the implicit 'faith in perception' which is the foundation on which solidity and predictability that we associate with the objective real are built upon, Baiju Parthan explains. An inter-media artist, he works simultaneously with the traditional media of painting as well as digital technology based installation art.

Born in Kerala in 1956, he has a rich academic background that has played a significant role in his art practice. Along with degrees in Painting, Botany, Philosophy, and a Post-grad diploma in Comparative mythology, he has done studies in computer game level design at the Pratt Institute Manhattan USA. He has done his BSC in Botany, studied painting from 1978-83 at the art school in Goa and he has a Master’s degree in Comparative Mythology at the Mumbai University.

Baiju Parthan is one of the early exponents of new media art and mediatic-realism in the Indian contemporary art scene. Essentially, his work is about world views or cosmographies that are on collision course affecting and transforming each other, and the resulting ontological fallout felt and lived by us all.

The London Art Fair 2012

2012-01-20T21:05:00.000-08:00

The keenly awaited event has a clear emphasis on Modern British art. Apart from an elaborate paintings showcase, it also includes a curated segment of contemporary photography. Here are its highlights:

The London Art Fair presents over 100 galleries featuring many of the known and not-so-famous names of 20th century British art and exceptional contemporary work from leading figures and emerging talent.

UK-based contemporary galleries include CHARLIE SMITH, Danielle Arnaud, Other Criteria, Pertwee Anderson and Gold, Purdy Hicks, Scream, UNION Gallery and VIGO. Modern British specialists such as Agnew’s, Hazlitt Holland-Hibbert, Offer Waterman, Osborne Samuel, Piano Nobile, Robin Katz Fine Art and The Fine Art Society. International galleries include: Artêria (Canada), FOLEY Gallery (New York), Galerie Olivier Waltman (Paris), JECZA Gallery (Romania), and whatiftheworld gallery (South Africa).

Visitors get to see solo shows and curated group displays in their Art Projects section, with galleries drawn from across the world, while Photo50 is a showcase for contemporary photography, this year curated by critic Sue Steward.

In 2011 the organizers expanded Art Projects to encompass selected projects by galleries from London, New York, Germany and Ireland, alongside public galleries and foundations such as The Whitechapel, Saatchi Editions and Serpentine Gallery. Art Projects features curated solo and group shows of contemporary work – painting, photography, sculpture, editions – as well as large scale installations, video and film.

The Art Projects Film Screening Room is hosting a curated program of experimental film and video that explores the overlaps between humor, satire and beauty in contemporary moving image artworks.

The fair exhibit under the title, The New Alchemists, collates a dozen contemporary photographers, who have in common the will to take the so-called ‘fastened-down’ photographic image and infuse it with a whole new dimension through the process of destroying, rebuilding and re-creating.

Meanwhile, fourth edition of the annual London Ice Sculpting Festival just concluded. Eight teams from across the globe carved dazzling designs from 2m ice blocks alongside Canary Wharf in London's Docklands. People were invited to make their own sculptures.

Is branding the reason for Indian art's popularity?

2012-01-20T06:48:00.000-08:00

A recent insightful and interesting piece in the editorial pages of The Times of India discusses whether the blurring of line between art and commerce is justified. Following are the salient points the essay makes:

Once considered a dilettante's passion or an elitist fad, Indian art is now firmly lodged in the popular imagination, and not just at home. As art forms have diversified - painting, video art, photography, installations - so have their locations and viewers.
The contemporary Indian art market has transformed beyond recognition in the last decade. Gone are the days when artists would dig a lonely furrow, or scan an uncertain future, scouting around for patrons and money. Today, India's vibrant art world is ready to compete with the best in the international arena.
That's because commercialization and branding have acted as catalysts for creativity. Globalization of the art market has propelled our artists on to the international stage. Exhibited and sold in foreign markets, their clientele has widened in an internationalized art collection scene.
Their works find takers in top galleries and auction houses, alongside items from emerging economies like Brazil or China. In this exciting background, artists like T V Santhosh, Atul Dodiya, Jitish Kallat or Subodh Gupta have transgressed artistic boundaries, experimenting with forms as well as material.
In India, exhibitions and fairs have taken art out of museums and to the masses. Breaking down barriers between 'high' and 'low' art, such events have popularized art among the general public. Once seen as esoteric, the art world's being opened up and democratized.
The culture of acquiring artwork too is no longer limited to the privileged few. Moreover, even tribal art and artisanal traditions have gained from the push of commercialization, which has brought them to the attention of appreciative buyers. Why, then, view art and commerce as mutually exclusive?
Those who'd rather zealously guard sequestered artistic habitats may object to it. But India Art Fair director Neha Kirpal is spot on in saying marketing and branding have promoted Indian art, here and abroad, it concludes.

Should art be for art's sake alone?

2012-01-20T00:57:00.000-08:00

Following are the key points in a thought-provoking column by Rudroneel Ghosh in The Times of India that tries to underline the fact that art should be for art's sake alone, ideally…

The Indian art circuit should insulate itself from the lure of commercialization. The concept of packaging art - be it in fairs, well-attended summits or branding exercises - is well-intentioned, seeking to bring art to the people.
The focus on marketing is antithetical to the very goal of educating people about art. Creation and promotion of art with an eye on moneymaking breed a vicious cycle: talented artists eventually compromise artistic value to cater to popular tastes that become their bread and butter. Art doesn't have to justify itself to anybody. It's only when art is for art's sake that artists can push the boundaries of creative imagination and create masterpieces.
Being an artist is not like any other profession. Nor is a painting or sculpture like a washing machine. Great artists of bygone years like Vincent van Gogh weren't even recognised for their genius during their lifetime. Art for them was a calling, which they took up without expecting material benefits. Many suffered in poverty, their contribution to the art world only recognized posthumously.
Today, their works, exhibited in prominent art museums, are deemed to be priceless. In contrast, the propensity for commercialization can lead to artistic mediocrity. Or it spawns works known more for their shock value. Take contemporary artist Damien Hirst's sharks floating in formaldehyde.
Besides, the emphasis on marketing and advertising doesn't always work out to the artist's advantage. As focus shifts to the retailer, credit for the original artist can be diluted. A case in point being tribal artists from remote corners of the country who hardly get recognition for their talent, even though art traders significantly profit from their works acquired for a pittance.
Hence, providing Indian art access to international markets doesn't necessarily benefit all artists. If artistic genius is to flourish, art must guard against crass commercialization.

'Milon Mukherjee's new solo

2012-01-19T12:27:00.000-08:00

'Milon Mukherjee's colors claim a bright intrepidity. They organize themselves in a dramatic way. Milon creates a colorful world made up of throbbing lines, persuasive textures and ever changing colours. Milon creates a world of forms and colours which are larger than life. In a way it is a world of magic, as modern as it is ancient.' - Dnyaneshwar Nadkarni

'He is no dispassionate observer. His is an art that emphases the values of compassion : following after the goodness whose presence he invokes in his paintings, Milon Mukherjee has learned to accept the violence of the universe without permitting it to corrode his emotional capacities for nurturing and love.' - Ranjit Hoskote

This is how two renowned critics from India have summed up the artist’s practice and processes. Like himself, his work remains very much in-your-face: encasing bright colors, bold strokes, and the ever-present sun or moon just somewhere in the background. Music has always been in his blood and even today, it reigns on his captivating canvases full of elegant strokes, the the bold figures; the ‘bansuri’, the ‘dhol’ and the ‘tabla player, all blurring in rhythm….

The embryo, his latest show of works at Mumbai based Jehangir Art Galley to be followed by that at Cymroza Art Galley, originated at the spur of a moment while awaiting a local train in 1993 just after the communal riots and bombings in the city; there was fear and suspicious around.

The artist recalls in an interview to Jayeeta Mazumder of The DNA India, “I still remember how a group of people from the slums around gathered on the railway platform, each one carrying a musical instrument like harmonium, flute and dholak. They all of a sudden began playing them together.”

And that’s when he actually thought of collating all the memories on his vivid canvases that form part of his new exhibition that resemble the cacophony.

What’s so (not) special about Damien Hirst’s spot paintings?

2012-01-19T04:31:00.000-08:00

Gagosian Gallery is hosting a worldwide exhibition series of two and a half decades of Spot Paintings by renowned artist Damien Hirst – all in one go.

Damien Hirst, born in 1965 in Bristol, England, had attained fame for his unique oeuvre and shows across the world, including solos ‘The Agony and the Ecstasy’, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Napoli, Naples (2004); ‘A Selection of Works from Various Collections’, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (2005); Astrup Fearnley Museet for Moderne Kunst, Oslo (2005); ‘For the Love of God’, Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (2008); ‘No Love Lost’, The Wallace Collection, London (2009); ‘Requiem’, Pinchuk Art Center, Kiev (2009); and ‘Cornucopia’, the Oceanographic Museum of Monaco (2010).

The celebrated artist received the Turner Prize in 1995. His work is included in many important public and private international collections. However his recent showcase has failed to impress and enthuse all. For example, in a rather critical review of the project, Roberta Smith of The New York Times notes that the quality of the whole extravaganza tends to mirror is like his career - up-and-down.

Yet it’s a touch paradoxical considering the narrow focus. Hirst is showing nothing but just fields of enamel dots, those smooth discs of color applied to canvases in orderly grids at intervals equal to the discs’ diameter. They can be any color, except that they can’t repeat on any given white canvas (although they come extremely close); the people making the works choose the colors.

The critic pointedly mentions that relentless evenness of technique and formula reflects the artist’s stated desire to make works, which seem to have been done by a machine. Yet what’s really striking is the variations, the unevenness, of both touch and finish, and the manner in which these spot paintings do that usual Hirst thing even within their narrower confines: they swing from good to ordinary. Some are wonderful; some aren’t paintings in a sense, just expanses of inert spots.

“I’ve always been a colorist’

2012-01-19T00:29:00.000-08:00

“I was always a colorist. I’ve always had a phenomenal love of color… I mean, I just move color around on its own. So that’s where the spot paintings came from—to create that structure to do those colors, and do nothing. I suddenly got what I wanted. It was just a way of pinning down the joy of color.”

This is how celebrated artist Damien Hirst sums up his art practice and processes. Gagosian Gallery is pleased to present “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” by him. The exhibition takes place at once across all of its eleven locations in New York, London, Paris, Los Angeles, Rome, Athens, Geneva, and Hong Kong, opening worldwide on January 12, 2012.

Most of the paintings are being lent by private individuals and public institutions, more than 150 different lenders from twenty countries. Conceived as a single exhibition in multiple locations, “The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011” makes use of this demographic fact to determine the content of each exhibition according to locality.

Included in the exhibition are more than 300 paintings, from the first spot on board that Hirst created in 1986; to the smallest spot painting comprising half a spot and measuring 1 x 1/2 inch (1996); to a monumental work comprising only four spots, each 60 inches in diameter; and up to the most recent spot painting completed in 2011 containing 25,781 spots that are each 1 millimeter in diameter, with no single color ever repeated.

In conjunction with the exhibition will be the publication of The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011, a fully illustrated catalogue of all spot paintings made by Hirst from 1986 to the present. It includes essays by Museum of Modern Art curator Ann Temkin, cultural critic Michael Bracewell, and art historian Robert Pincus-Witten as well as a conversation between Damien Hirst, Ed Ruscha and John Baldessari.

The third issue of the Gagosian App for iPad will also launch January, providing an interactive, in-depth look at the series that features more than ninety spot paintings. ‘Damien Hirst: The Complete Spot Paintings 1986–2011’ precedes the first major museum retrospective of his work opening at Tate Modern in London in April, 2012.

A kaleidoscopic view of a staunch feminist’s oeuvre

2012-01-18T06:17:00.000-08:00

Rekha Rodwittiya’s protagonists often get elevated to iconic proportions, and can attain multiple personas simultaneously. Born in Bangalore in 1958, the proud daughter of a fighter pilot and one of pioneering women cricketers from India, she did her B.A. (Fine Arts) at Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda and M.A. (Painting) from Royal College of Art, London.

Having practiced photography under Jyoti Bhatt, she later studied Film & Video techniques at Fulham Institute, London (1982-83). A recipient of Inlaks Scholarship, she also featured in a residency project at The Konsthogskolan Art College courtesy Svenska Institute, Sweden. Among her major solos are 'rekha@fifty', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (2008); ‘Second Skin’, The Air Gallery, London (2007); ‘Once Upon A Time….’, Shridharani Gallery, New Delhi (2006); ‘Encrypted Soliloquies’, Singapore (2005); 'Bye Bye Baby!', Sakshi Gallery, Mumbai (2003); and a show at Art Amsterdam in 2000.

Her recent significant group exhibitions and participations include 'Pause: A Collection', at Sakshi, Mumbai; 'Back to School: Baroda 1979-89', Palette Art Gallery, New Delhi; 'Dali's Elephant', Aicon Gallery, London; 'Singularities', RL Fine Arts, New York; 'Long Gone & Living Now', Gallerie Mirchandani + Steinreucke, Mumbai; 'Zip Files', Tao Art Gallery, Mumbai; ‘Manifestations V', Delhi Art Gallery, Delhi; 'Roots in the Air, Branches Below', San Jose Museum of Art; 'The Intuitive: Logic Revisted', from the Osians Collection at The World Economic Forum, Davos; and 'Finding India: Art for the New century' at Museum of Contemporary Art (MOCA), Taipei.

A solo of her fresh works, entitled ‘Intangible Interlocution: an Anthology of Belonging’ at the Mumbai based Sakshi gallery, provided a kaleidoscopic view of her oeuvre in three distinct segments. ‘Letters of the Universe: When the Sun and the Moon Fall Asleep, Only Then Can I Dance so Naked’ incorporated watercolor paintings with popular stickers plus some personal memorabilia. ‘An Anatomy of Recollection’ comprised digital inkjet prints of intense autobiographic photo-images. Lastly, ‘Diagrams of an Interior Space’ included acrylics and oils on canvases.

A few years ago, the venue had hosted major retrospective exhibition, encapsulating the core of her life and art practice. The mixed acrylic & oil works tried to balance out the male/ female inequality.

A rebellious practitioner who fights for a cause

2012-01-18T00:18:00.000-08:00

The ubiquitous female figure emerges as a recurring motif in Rekha Rodwittiya’s bold-hued paintings, representing diverse shades of emotions and concerns, sans objectifying the same. In fact, she has always resisted any kind of social diktats and censorship.

The celebration of womanhood has probably been the most enduring motif in her work amidst this politics of belonging that makes it stand apart. Regarding her position as a staunch feminist, the artist maintains that she has instinctively identified with those who are marginal or marginalized (by society).

One cannot and should not stay on the periphery of issues close to one’s heart, she reasons. There’s a tender touch to her narration as well. Trying to retell stories we tend to carry with us, she divulged an amalgamation of truths and desires, memories and histories - the residues of experience that define our existence in her 2006 series.

According to her, metaphors mostly culled from specific reference points, get transformed by virtue of how they’re delivered, to evoke wider meanings in the end. In terms of material, she is also keen to engage with the modern by employing the pop culture’s kitschy aesthetic. Curiously, while she affirms ‘I’m a feminist’ with palpable ease, she is equally adamant about being a practitioner sans a prefix like being a feminist artist. Rekha Rodwittiya’s oeuvre is set within the firm framework of this consistent feminist preoccupation.

A socially conscious individual that she is, as amply reflected in her gestures going beyond canvas, she has actively participated in causes like the launch of a recent charity show to support the India Foundation for the Arts (IFA) that encourages multiple means and methods of cultural enquiries. The processes of learning, both collective and personal hold value in it, a thought that she holds dear to her heart and one which drives her own personal politics as an artist, she concludes.

Peeping into Rekha Rodwittiya’s painterly realm

2012-01-17T23:16:00.000-08:00

A belief that female empowerment and its associated emotional baggage is rather complex in nature marks the works of this staunch feminist. She airs strong voices that inhibit the desire to drive away the stereotype of prevailing gender bias, and clamors for a complete change of mindset in her work that also deals with diverse issues- socio-political as well as the intimate and personal in nature.

Acclaimed artist Rekha Rodwittiya’s paintings allow a peep not only into her viewpoint but also her inner realm. They are not sheer illustrative stories about her personal life, and in keeping with her broader concerns, act as a sort of homage to the ancestry of womanhood, transforming the presence of her persona into its emblematic representation.

For her, painting has invariably been a mode of spontaneous expression, prompting a dialogue with herself and those in tune with her philosophy or even against it. Encapsulating her philosophy, she has stated: “There are certain things within the history and the currency of life, which get absorbed into an artist’s vocabulary.

"My work displays a consistent involvement with the human figure as a leitmotif to embody man’s predicament. I’ve also made a conscious choice to engage with the delineation of the female figure over time. Though the concerns largely remain the same, now the negotiations are different.”

In fact, her personal politics are fashioned from none other than the perspective of gender issues. Her art is conceived from this very mold of her conscience, which holds her feminist spirit as its crux, with an urgency and passion, seeping into every crevice of her existence. Her protagonists often take up various postures or stances in exploring their individual identities.

One observes a subtle play on time, with the artist walking the memory lane with snapshots of the past. But then not everything about her work is overtly sentimental. There is a scissor or a sword in her frames more often than once.

Famous French artists send your personalized portraits online

2012-01-17T12:04:00.000-08:00

Those lucky few of you, who have toured Paris, would perhaps be aware of Montmartre. If there ever was a ‘Silicon Valley’ for European artists, that would be the place. Salvador Dali, Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso and Vincent Van Gogh, you take a name, and all of them worked or lived there at some point in their lives.

Today it’s fondly identified as Paris’s prime artistic district. Its lanes and public places are akin to second home to many caricaturists and artists, all looking to attract curious tourists with a portrait. But now we can soak into its tradition sans actually going their; well, almost! One can check Google Earth/ Street View for a quick tour, but that won’t be a substitute for the amazing interaction with the artist community of Montmartre.

And while it is rather unlikely for a digital product to replicate the whole experience, Artistoon has taken a step in that direction. Thanks to the French startup, street artists can get digital. Cleverly terming itself the ‘Montmartre of the web’, it resembles Wittygraphy, the California-based caricaturist community.

The venture, officially launched in November 2011, let one get a personalized caricature or portrait from the local artists you would meet on the streets of Montmartre. There are 15 artists, selected through a meticulous process, are working with Artistoon. It’s developing its artist base on basis of Based on an actual portrait test and/or their portfolio quality.

The site visitor gets to see various portrait & caricature styles that cost between €18 and €400 depending on the finesse, size, style, and the medium. Select your options, send your digital photograph (after payment) and receive their portrait. That’s all it takes. Users can opt to have up to 6 faces in a single portrait and can send requests for additional image personalization during check out.

The new media art attracts collectors

2012-01-17T09:53:00.000-08:00

The new media practitioners from India seek the viewer participation and involvement, using interactive technology to examine contemporary themes and concerns. By manipulating text, sound and image in novel experimental ways, they shift viewers’ stance from being passive spectators to that of active participants.

Their aim is to stimulate a new kind of aware viewership that opens up to new windows to the outside world or preset transcendental truths, overturning set notions of how the moving image communicates. But then there are practical issues that hamper the viewing and collecting. Video art is not easy hard to show in conventional art spaces.

It can take up a lot of space, its sound effect can easily spill over into other arenas, and its logistics can get complex because of cumbersome equipment. And that's something not considering challenging or bizarre subject matter that a practitioners like to tackle.

The idea of a collective simultaneous video exhibit with sound spill and light spill can get problematic. And with so much quantum of video now being produced, the real challenge is to do something more expansive and collaborative. Again the challenge of the works’ marketability and saleability is very much there.

There are gallerists like Christopher Grimes in Santa Monica, who consciously try and make the format as such, if not the content itself, more accessible by working around the gallery's space constraints as tried out in an extensive video art programming, a few months ago.

It is heartening to note though, buyers of video art in India are steadily growing in number. It received a big boost when Anupam Poddar launched the Devi Art Foundation dedicated to showing it. He has been quoted as saying, “I think the individual collector can buy it. The immateriality, easy storage and portability are some of the aspects that work in its favor.”

Another leading collector Swapan Seth feels it’s important to embrace and encourage newer technologies not only for artists but also for collectors. Youngsters, who have made the new media art their calling, should be encouraged, he avers. There is every reason to be optimistic about its future prospects and viability thanks to support and patronage from aware collectors, keen to acquire the video artworks.

Major shows of video art underline its rising stature

2012-01-16T12:16:00.000-08:00

Internationally videos have been around in the mainstream visual culture for a long time now. However animation films as a genre of video making has gained ground recently. Several young emerging artists especially with training in art/design/technology are experimenting and coming up with new genre of works.
Mumbai based Guild Gallery presented VAF@The Guild, 2011 curated by JohnyML, revolving around the new concepts of video and animation filmmaking. Explaining the background of this unique project, the curator stated: “With the collapsing boundaries between different art genres more and more interdisciplinary practices get space and appreciation in the field of visual arts as a part of the general cultural production.”

New-Delhi based Gallery Espace recently unveiled the 2nd edition of Video Wednesdays II, collaboration between Gayatri Sinha/ Critical Collective and Shanghai’s Minsheng Art Museum artist/curator Zhou Tiehai. The two brought together new media art from India and China. Incidentally, Video Wednesdays @ Espace was the first ever year long video art shows in 2008-09. On the other hand, the third edition of International Documentary & Short Film Festival (IDSFFK) in Kerala provided a chance to view video art put in the space and context of a film festival.

A unique event at Berlin based Deutsche Guggenheim, entitled ‘Being Singular Plural: Moving Images from India’ collated film and video works by some of the innovative media practitioners like Shumona Goel and Shai Heredia, Sonal Jain & Mriganka Madhukaillya of Desire Machine Collective, Amar Kanwar, and Kabir Mohanty.

‘Once Upon a Time: Fantastic Narratives in Contemporary Video’ focused on how fantastic stories and modern fairytales are represented in modern video art. It investigated how contemporary artists adapt motives and narrative techniques from myths, fables, and fairy tales to mirror current social phenomena and events in recent history.

On the other hand, ‘Indian Highway’ at the Reykjavík Art Museum traced the impact of early technology stretching to the information superhighway, a major contributor to India’s economic progress and to the artistic development. Berlin based Arndt & Partner (ARNDT) hosted Jitish Kallat solo ‘Likewise’, incorporating grotesque-surreal and ironic imagery composed of video, sculpture, photography etc.

Vivaciousness and vibrancy of video art is its USP

2012-01-16T09:48:00.000-08:00

The video art was first made in the West in the early 1960s. Indian artists started to experiment with the medium in the 1990s. It can be best denoted by what it’s not – in a nutshell, it’s different from cinema. The key difference doesn’t lie in technique or technology but in structure and implicit sensibility.

The aesthetics depends to an extent on fiddling with, and also upending the rules of the art of film-making. Its uniqueness is blurring the boundaries between short films, documentary, film, home video, mobile cameras etc. According to curator JohnyML, video is a democratic medium since you don’t need a gallery and you can disseminate your work with YouTube and blog.”

On the other hand, curator of ‘Still Moving Image’ Deeksha Nath emphasizes that video art tries to undermine the characteristics of cinema and photography, destabilizing the defining moment and also narrative story telling. In fact, many established and upcoming artists from India are looking to break into new vistas of expression so as to share their socio-political concerns in a new idiom, which is their very own.

For this, they are engaging with a spectrum of new media, encompassing video and performance. At times, the presentation is distinguished by its matter-of-fact trait, reflecting embodiment of truth as it’s evident in the image’s very materiality and structure.

Shilpa Gupta, Ayisha Abraham, Ravi Agarwal, Amar Kanwar, Raqs Media Collective, Abhishek Hazra, Tushar Joag, Sonia Khurana, Reena Saini Kallat, Kiran Subbaiah, Tejal Shah, Ashok Sukumaran, Baptist Coelho, Nikhil Chopra, Sunil Gupta, Vivan Sundaram, Subodh Gupta, Ranbir Kaleka and Nalini Malani are among those who deal with specific social and human issues.

Aditi Chitre, Iram Ghurfan, Gigi Scaria, Kavita Singh Kale, K.M.Madhusudhanan, Neha Thakar, Pooja Iranna, Riyas Komu, Samia Singh, Srinivas Bhakta, Navjot Altaf, Mithu Sen, Sonia Mehra Chawla, Jitish Kallat, Vidya Kamat and Bose Krishnamachari are other noteworthy names.

Painting the grandeur and glory of New Delhi

2012-01-16T06:32:00.000-08:00

A recent exhibition in the capital city of India celebrated the grandeur and glory of its heritage. What made this event worth noting was the fact that the images were painted by a seventy-seven-year-old artist. Septuagenarian Uma Lohtia spent hours at sites like the Humayun's tomb, Red Fort and Jama Masjid. The passion and persistence reflects in the meticulousness of her works.

Naturally gifted in the fine arts, the unassuming artist originally from Khurja in the northern state of Uttar Pradesh and now based in Delhi, has been painting for last several years, spurred by the time she spent at an art school in Delhi and the evening classes she attended there.

After completing her graduation from Lady Irwin College, Lohtia began painting for her own joy. Her family members encouraged her to paint, as she continued to explore various mediums like oil on canvas, watercolor, mixed media etc apart from some wonderful wash paintings, a medium that she is keen to revive. She applied her flair for color and design to her own line of apparel and its exquisite embroidery, with an imprint of her unique workmanship that won her a client following worldwide.

For several years, she was at a finishing school, teaching art. Having lived in Delhi for last so many years, she has been inspired by its monuments, mosques, tombs, gardens etc. In a tribute to the rich heritage, she recently created a series of paintings, entitled ‘The Living Legends/ Legions of Delhi’, which celebrates the spirit and ethos of the city during its centenary year.

She has stated: “Each monument in Delhi has its very own story to tell that makes it even more interesting. In a way, my paintings are efforts for a revival of history. And I have painted the monuments that have survived for so many years to draw attention to them. “I picked books on these monuments and studied them from different angles.” For example, she painted an angle of the Humayun's tomb, a side view of Lodi Gardens and Diwan-e-Khas, showing dancers in a live performance.

Asian art gallery at the MFA, Boston

2012-01-15T09:37:00.000-08:00

In a significant development, two new galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston celebrate rare sculptural gems from India as well as other countries from South and Southeast Asia, starting with a collection, entitled ‘Gems of Rajput Painting’.

This exquisite stream of Indian painting, commissioned during the 16th to 19th centuries by rulers (Rajputs or ‘sons of kings’) in Rajasthan who shared a culture centered on Sanskrit poetry, Hindu worship and the fierce pride of warrior clans, was discovered only in the past 100 years by Ananda Coomaraswamy (1877–1947), the MFA’s first curator of Indian art.

The paintings and manuscript illustrations on view represent the peak of the artistic traditions developed at workshops associated with the many Rajput courts. Usually painted on paper in watercolor (gouache), often brightly hued with gold accents, they often illustrate poetic texts and are small in size. A 21st-century take on the Rajput vision of elite court life reflects in ‘Horse with Gold Head’ Dress (Udaipur, 2007) by contemporary artist Raja Ram Sharma, who has used traditional Rajput techniques to create it.

Thematic groupings in this exhibit are designed to let viewers easily follow the material, illuminating the conventions these artists followed and played with in their wonderful work. “Rajput painting is one of the great traditions of Indian art, and yet for some, the exaggerated bodies, incredibly bold colors, and use of multiple perspectives can be dizzying,” the curator Laura Weinstein explains.

Over 100 works in the all-new South Asian & Southeast Asian Sculpture Gallery highlight the rich artistic traditions of countries like India. Many of the art objects on view have only recently been conserved. These exquisite pieces are celebrated not only for their unique cultural identity, but also as distinct reflections of 2,000 years of major exchange of ideas and aesthetics.

The world-renowned museum strives to present South and Southeast Asian art from a new angle. A series of special programs will complement the exhibition so that the people can explore Indian art and culture through the lens of epic stories, religious rituals, sacred space, contemporary literature and film.

(Image courtesy: The MFA, Boston)

‘Listen to your Eye’ by Sharmila Samant

2012-01-15T06:56:00.000-08:00

A new solo show by renowned artist Sharmila Samant takes place at Mumbai-based Lakeeren Art Gallery. Elaborating on its theme, a press release poses questions a few that she looks to answer in her series: “How do we see? What is the hidden agenda behind appearances?”

These are the issues that she looks to solve in her monographic show, entitled ‘Listen to your Eye’. In essence, it tries to investigate the core aspect of our viewing and perception process. A press release elaborates: “Comprising of sculptural-installation and neon, her new body of work subverts the materialty of the objects in relation to its function bringing to a fore issues of corruption, notions of progress and making visible the detritus in society through a trompe-l'œil.

Born in 1967, Sharmila Samant studied at the Sir J.J. School of Arts, Mumbai, India (1989) plus a Residency at the Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (1998-99) and the Gasworks Studios in 2000. Her new series, ‘Listen to your eyes…’ could be viewed as a cautionary note of events taking place in our world that need to be urgent addressed as they pose consequences for us if they continue to go unaddressed and unarticulated in the future.

She has also featured in several national and international shows including ‘Century City’ - Art and Culture in the Modern Metropolis, The Tate Modern, London, UK; Liverpool Biennale, UK (2002); ‘Sub terrain’, House of World Culture, Berlin (2003); ‘The Werkleitz Biennale: Common Property’, Volkspark, Halle/Saale, Germany (2004), ‘Edge of Desire: Recent art in India’, curated by Chaitanya Sambrani; and ‘Indian Summer’ Ecole nationale superieure des beaux-arts de Paris, Paris, curated Henry-Claude Cousseau, Deepak Ananth, Jany Lauga 2005, Subcontingent The Indian Subcontinent in Contemporary Art, Fondazione Sandretto Re Rabaudengo, Torino, Italy, curate

Exhibiting after a gap of 15 years in the city, she retrospectively draws on her earlier projects continuing her critique of globalization, genetically modified foods and commentary on current socio-political undertakings.

‘Painting the Modern in India’ at PEM

2012-01-15T00:38:00.000-08:00

‘Painting the Modern in India’ courtesy Massachusetts-based Peabody Essex Museum takes place in the Contemporary Native American Art, Wheatland Gallery. It features seven renowned painters who came of age during the height of the movement to free India from British rule.

Elaborating on the showcase, a curatorial note states, “To liberate themselves from a position at the margins of an art world shaped by the colonial establishment, these artists organized path-breaking associations - the Calcutta Artists Group in 1943, the Progressive Artists Group in 1947 Bombay, and the Delhi Shilpi Chakra in 1949. They pioneered new approaches to painting, repositioning their own art practices internationally and in relation to the 5,000-year history of art in India.

They created hybrid styles that are an under-appreciated yet essential component of the broad sweep of art in the 20th century. After independence in 1947, they took advantage of new opportunities in art centers around the world, especially Paris, London and New York, intensifying their quests for what the Bombay Progressives termed ‘aesthetic order, plastic coordination and color composition’.

At the same time, they looked deeply into their own artistic heritage, learning from the first exhibition of Indian art in 1948 at Raj Bhavan in Delhi and taking inspiration from ancient sites like the old city in Benaras and the temples at Khajuraho.”

The works on view are drawn from PEM's Chester and Davida Herwitz Collection, the most important holding of 20th-century art from India in this country, and The Tina and Anil Ambani Collection, one of India's leading private collections.

In its effort to bring out the beauty and thematic relevance of Indian art, the museum had hosted an exhibition revealing visual conversations between India’s contemporary and traditional artists. ‘ReVisions: India’s Artists Engaging Traditions’ presented select contemporary works in tandem with traditional pieces exemplifying the artists’ source of inspiration, including Mughal court painting, medieval temple sculpture and photography.

(Image courtesy: The PEM)

World-renowned institutions show interest in Indian art

2012-01-14T23:12:00.000-08:00

The Louvre Paris is one of the most renowned museums in the world. Its president Henri Loyrette is looking forward to engage with talented contemporary Indian artists.

The art aficionado visited the country last month, to take stock of its thriving art scene. Keeping in mind the vitality and dynamism of their work, the institution is eager to associate with top names like Subodh Gupta.

Louvre currently possesses only Mughal miniatures that form part of its Islamic arts department. They constitute just a drop in the vast ocean of the thriving Indian art scene. This is exactly why he wants to know more about its dynamic art scenario.

Loyrette has emphasized in a media interaction that India, just like China, cannot be ignored, adding:“We've been inspired by the exhibits of Indian art in Paris and a growing number of Indians are now visiting the Louvre. I don't know much about artists from India. I'm hoping to do so in near future. This visit should help me in that regard.”

In fact, he reportedly explored the different possibilities of collaboration with established gallerists, leading museums such as the NGMA, the government officials, intellectuals, top collectors including Kiran Nadar, the Ambanis, the Poddars etc, and of course, the artists themselves.

Meanwhile, according to media reports, London’s Tate Modern is establishing new acquisition committees, specializing in African and Indian contemporary art - a sign that the institution is expanding curatorially as well as physically.

Picasso and Mondrian paintings stolen

2012-01-14T03:11:00.000-08:00

It took all of seven minutes for thieves to make their way through a balcony door and lay their hands on precious paintings by Mondrian and Picasso from the National Art Gallery located in Athens.

In the latest case of art theft, reported by Associated Press (AP), the police sources were quoted as saying that the thieves set off alarms intentionally to catch the guards off-guard, lulling them into disabling a sensor at the museum site. One alarm subsequently went off, but they arrived too late.

The paintings stolen were a representational work of a riverside windmill by Mondrian done in 1905, the 16th-century painter Guglielmo Caccia’s pen & ink drawing of St. Diego de Alcala, and Picasso’s cubist female bust with a dedication, reading ‘in homage to the Greek people’. Another painting by Mondrian was removed from the frame but dropped as the burglars fled. Incidentally, the museum was just starting renovation work.

In December 20101, in another case of daring art theft, a gang drove off in a van filled with works by Pablo Picasso and renowned sculptors Fernando Botero and Eduardo Chillida after breaking into a warehouse near Madrid. The thieves took 22 sculptures and paintings worth an estimated €5m from the warehouse in Getafe at the weekend. They drove off using a key left in the van's glove department.

Only about half of the works, which were being returned to Spain from a German gallery, were insured. According to David Fernández of Madrid’s Juan Gris gallery was quoted as saying: "I am furious and upset. A day had already been decided for some of these works to be delivered to his gallery and five more in Madrid and Barcelona . Nothing like this has happened to us in four decades."

According to The Guardian news report, the van that carried these works had been parked at that point of time inside a warehouse just having arrived from the Stefan Röpke art gallery in Germany. The structure (warehouse) belonged to the Crisóstomo transport company. Three thieves managed to break into it during midday hours.

Spotlight on one of India’s young and talented art practitioner

2012-01-14T03:07:00.000-08:00

With his work, Praneet Soi strives to express the encounter of different eras, skillfully synthesized in an archaic two-dimensionality that’s expressed with raw and violent lines, reflecting contemporary society.

His visual idiom recalls that of the 16th-17th century tradition of ‘Rajput’ painting in Rajasthan, and that of the iconographic ‘Kalighat Pata’ from Kolkata. The Indian folk art and its techniques have influenced his style apart from the traits of realism that they carry in a ‘western’ sense of inferring the term.

Among the select few contemporary artists from India who featured in the 2011 Venice Biennale at the country’s first eve official Pavilion, this young and talented artist is greatly influenced by the issues that touch our daily life. For instance, when onion prices touched a record high, housewives took to the streets last year. Food inflation was soaring and this staple of Indian cooking turned a political hot potato.

But for Praneet Soi it proved to be a source of inspiration, as he felt the onion crisis was an issue directly affecting common people in India and beyond. He researched the subject and created a series inspired by food inflation recently on display. The artist took photos of routine trading in Okhla’s fruits & vegetables market. When the inflation reached its peak, he decided to work with geometry for giving them new perspective.

His idea was to draw fresh attention to ubiquitous images many had become accustomed to – those typically paired with inflation news stories. But he did not want to make any political statement. He was quoted as saying: “It’s kind of an interesting story since it depicts the varied textures of India sans being too particular. It’s about something (inflation) that happens all over the world.” However, he is opposed to the idea of making images to narrate a story, and simply wants people to ‘build their own stories from these images.

Socially oriented agenda of a sensitive artist

2012-01-13T23:03:00.000-08:00

Artist Praneet Soi’s practice is a byproduct of his constant journey, observation and search of cultural contrasts between and his native city Kolkata and Amsterdam, where he now lives. He has traversed distant and diverse cultural grounds, from India to the Netherlands, passing via the US.

On his flat acrylic engravings, he looks to denounce, the spasmodic pressure we suffer every day from religious and political realities. Keen to experiment, he works in a wide range of media like painting, drawing, audio-visual assemblages etc. He employs ancient eastern refinement to emphasize the suffering of humanity.

Born in 1971 in Kolkata, Praneet Soi did his Bachelors of Fine Arts and later Masters (Painting) in 1994-96 from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda. After completing a Masters Degree (Visual Arts) from University of California, San Diego (2001), he studied at Rijksakademie van Beeldende Kunsten, Amsterdam (2002-03).

Among his selected solos are 'Still Life', Vadehra Gallery, Delhi (2009); ‘Het Oog (the Eye)’, Van Abbe Museum, Eindhoven, Netherlands (2009); 'Cut-Out', Gallery Martin Van Zomeren, Netherlands (2009); ‘Juggernaut’, Project 88, Mumbai (2008); ‘Face to Face’, LKA, Delhi (2006); ‘Northern Wind’, Galerie Martin Van Zomeren, Amsterdam (2005); 'Spinning Stories ... # 3’, The Kromme, Tent, Rotterdam (2004); 'A Short Walk’, The Inkijk, SKOR, Amsterdam (2004); and shows at University of California, San Diego (2003, 20005).

Among his recent selected group exhibits and participations are 'Genius without Talent', de Appel Boys' School, Amsterdam; 'Concepts & Ideas 2011', (CIMA), Kolkata; 'ID/entity', Vadehra, Delhi; 'Progressive to Altermodern', Grosvenor Gallery, London; 'Generation in Transition', Zacheta National Gallery of Art, Warszawa, Poland; Ural Industrial Bienale of Contemporary Art, Ekatarinburg, Russia; 14th Vilinus Painting Triennal, CAC, Adelaide; and the 2009 'ARCOmadrid' fair in Spain. A

recipient of The Russell 2002 Grant courtesy University of California, he also served Residency at Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture, Maine in 2001. He received a Grant from the Ministry of Education Culture & Science, Netherlands in 2004.

Mapping Praneet Soi’s art and career

2012-01-13T10:08:00.000-08:00

Young and talented Praneet Soi explores representations of familiar images emanating from the rumblings around in order to grasp how such imagery can affect the way we might perceive our own environment. The artist is known for addressing sensitive social issues with a global or local resonance.

Giving an insight into his processes, a curatorial note to his display ‘Het Oog (the Eye)’ at Van Abbe Museum had mentioned: “In a time where we are inevitably confronted with images of conflict from all over the globe, the artist asks himself how the human figure is represented in contemporary image culture. In our time, where the use of age-old image conventions is appropriated in professional image production, what happens when this very figure is ripped apart and an attempt is made to reconstruct it in another way?”

On the other hand, his ‘Cut-Out’ comprised an archive of images composed as cut out collages, together with paintings and a mural as a means for him to mark out his physical, political and cultural environment. On the other hand, his ‘Juggernaut’ included works that when juxtaposed led to a certain social commentary.

Encapsulated within the notion of progress today are the dual forces of war and globalization. The thread that strings these forces together is history. The series employed political imagery born of such process to picture the strange alliances and mutations that populate its disturbed trail.

His paintings in miniature format and on flattened ground explored images of unrest from across the world - Afghanistan, Lebanon, London and Iraq, whereas for a project earlier this year, he visited the insurgency hit city of Srinagar in Kashmir. An interactive document was prepared to follow the state’s political problematic along juridical lines within history. A slide-show offered details of a fulfilling personal and intuitive exploration of the city. Collages, text as well as photographs drew upon its inherent beauty. The composition – not predetermined - albeit materialized in a symbiotic relationship with the space.

What constitutes 'a painting'?

2012-01-13T00:43:00.000-08:00

‘Painting is a Painting is a Painting’, an interesting group show takes place at Initial Access, Wolverhampton, featuring John M Armleder, Rashid Johnson & Dirk Skreber.

A selection by Nicolai Frahm and Samuel Leuenberger, it features three artists working who all playfully question what constitutes 'a painting'. They all come from different backgrounds, working visually, conceptually, even ideologically very differently, albeit each one challenging our expectations of what really a painting can, feel and look like.

The title adapts Gertrude Stein’s 1913 poem ‘Sacred Emily’ – “a rose is a rose is a rose is a rose”: in Stein's view, using the name of a thing immediately invokes emotions, expectations and ideas. A curatorial note elaborates: “The exhibition presents artists who adopt the language of painting, but present it on a larger scale, creating a grander impact that allows the viewer to collaborate in the narrative of the final work. They engage in a great variety of artistic practices from sculpture to photography to graffiti, incorporating domestic items, images and iconic symbols from mass media into their work, but they always return to the seductive nature of painting.

The resulting amalgam, sometimes even Gesamtkunstwerk, invites questions of the very nature of painting itself, long before we consider questions of social, artistic, personal and political interpretation. For instance, works by Dirk Skreber such as Untitled, 2000 (exploding house) present the dystopian vision typical of his work, distorting elements of form, perspective and nature.

The artist’s work has a sculptural quality, his canvases bound with thick duct tape that elevates the painted surface. On the other hand, Rashid Johnson’s floor and wall works have a luscious physicality, Souls of Black Folk, 2010 consist of tiled shelves filled with objects redolent with Afro-American symbolism, books, shea butter, LP covers, moon rock.

Initial Access, a gallery launched to present works from Frank Cohen’s collection of contemporary art just on the outskirts of the millennium city of Wolverhampton. The venue presents different aspects of the Collection in a series of curated exhibitions. As readers may well remember, the gallery had hosted two ambitious ‘Passage to India’ shows in 20080-9 to celebrate the richness and diversity of contemporary Indian art.

(Image courtesy: Initial Access)

A spotlight on India’s late legend

2012-01-12T23:30:00.000-08:00

A month-long show of late MF Husain's works at The Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA), Mumbai ends on January 13. In a tribute to him, we present some interesting facets of his life and career:

Husain was considered a maverick. He chose to go barefoot, like most poor Indians, twirling an oversized paint brush at posh parties and coffee shops. He remained a painter who enjoyed street art, and the color and popular forms of art.
Husain was most captivated by the cinema and relished the moving images. They had a lasting impact on him. In 1967 his film “Through the Eyes of a Painter” won the Golden Bear award at the Berlin Film Festival.
The Bollywood-loving painter also made Hindi films that celebrated Indian womanhood, especially peasants and women in traditional dress. His series of lithographs and oils on Madhuri Dixit, a Bollywood diva of the 1990s, were very popular.
He directed the film Gaja Gamini as a tribute to the actress in whom he said he had found a muse. He also directed a film, Meenaxi - A Tale of Three Cities. The lead was played by another Bollywood actress, Tabu, whose grace Husain said inspired him to make the film.
The maverick artist belonged to the elite club of Indian painters like Tyeb Mehta and SH Raza whose works have sold for more than $1m. In 2008, his ‘Battle of Ganga and Yamuna’ fetched $1.6m at Christies even as angry Hindu protesters lined outside the auction house condemning him.
His decision of a self-imposed exile upon himself, pained by a spate of notices, cases and threats to his life. His deities painted in the nude, first in the 1970s, invited charge of obscenity. Despite the controversies, which dogged him, he was a genius and a torchbearer of creative freedom. Husain was working till his last breath, dividing his time between Qatar, London and Dubai where he had his home, a studio and a museum.

The life and journey of late MF Husan

2012-01-12T21:24:00.001-08:00

Maqbool Fida Husain, born on September 17, 1915, in Pandharpur, Maharashtra, and grew up in Indore. His father was an accountant. Rather than becoming a tailor’s apprentice, he decided to try his luck in Mumbai, where he found work as a ‘graphics wallah’ painting the vibrant billboards advertising Bollywood films. He also designed toys and children’s furniture.

Though he attained immense fame as a painter, he remained a film fan throughout his life. After seeing Ms. Dixit in ‘Who Am I to You?’ (1994), one of the most successful Hindi films ever made, he adopted her as his muse, painting hundreds of portraits and directing her in the 2000 film ‘Gaja Gamini,’ which he also produced and in which he invested $2 million. He later directed in ‘Meenaxi: A Tale of Three Cities’ (2004). Neither film was a commercial success.

His political troubles stemmed from a group of paintings, made in the early 1970s, that included a depiction of the goddess Durga copulating with a tiger, the goddess Lakshmi perched naked on the elephant head of Ganesh, the god of success, and a nude Saraswati, the Hindu goddess of knowledge.

In response to them, several lawsuits were filed against him for “promoting enmity between different groups.” Although the Delhi High Court dismissed the complaints in 2004, Mr. Husain became a lightning rod for political and religious tensions between Hindus and Muslims. An angry mob ransacked his gallery in Ahmedabad, and members of the far-right Hindu group invaded his house and vandalized paintings.

The lawsuits kept coming. Mr. Husain observed the turmoil with a cool eye. He once invited a panel composed of an art critic, a lawyer and a Hindu nationalist to review his work. If they found any of it offensive, he said, he would throw it into a fire in a traditional Hindu sacrificial rite.

In 1986, as a reward for his status as a national treasure, he was appointed by Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi to the upper house of the Indian Parliament. After leaving India, Mr. Husain, divided his time between Dubai and London in exile. But he always remained an Indian at heart and in his art. India’s arguably most internationally famous painter, MF Husain died on Thursday in London at 95, last June...

Four reasons that make Indian art a value buy for long-term

2012-01-12T00:13:00.000-08:00

Here are the five reasons that will support long-term growth of the Indian art market, still in an early growth phase, offering immense scope for investment:

Reason 1: Merrill Lynch and Capgemini’s latest world wealth survey points out that alternative asset have become an integral part of high net worth individuals (HNIs) portfolios, up from six percent to nine percent. Their sustained buying has pushed up the bar and the upward journey of the price graph has just started.

Reason 2: Art remains a popular investment option for wealthy in the UK during tough economic times marked by a period of low interest rates and economic worries, a recent BBC News study mentions, quoting from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) survey.

According to its spokesperson, the art & antiques market remains a strong performer for buyers looking to invest in more tangible assets to guard against the uncertain economic picture. The trend of investing in ‘emotional assets’ is getting stronger with investors, having suffered from the global crisis, returning to objects ‘closer to their hearts’, with a decent ROI and liquidity.

Reason 3: The art market has certainly become more mature and transparent. Not so long ago, buyers and collectors could compare prices only by attending auctions and rummaging through heavy catalogues. The scenario has changed considerably. The process of acquiring art has become more ‘democratic’, so to say. Also, the base of buyers and sellers is fast expanding! The growth of services and expertise backed by market infrastructure and mechanism within the art world is now more pronounced.

Reason 4: Collectors are fervently participating in a series of Indian art auctions, making them hugely successful, to establish its global potential. They are treating the sales as an opportunity to acquire some of the very best contemporary and classic works on offer, set to appreciate in the future. The leading market players are focusing on quality works in order to target the discerning buyers’ category

‘Buying art gives get a psychic reward.’

2012-01-11T21:10:00.000-08:00

Sociologist Mitch Abolafia, who has studied Wall Street financiers’ methods, states sometimes money speaks for itself. As a trader told her, with glee in his eyes, ‘Well, you can’t see it, but there’s money everywhere in this room.’ It was probably a generalized excitement about money that she could also feel.

And that’s exactly the excitement we all draw from expensive art. One ardent collector, who believes that art should be purchased for art’s sake, acknowledges happily basking in the ‘glow of prosperity’ his purchases exude once their value has gone up. “We don’t really consider art an investment.

In fact, we get a psychic reward,” reveals Eli Broad, a renowned collector based in Los Angeles. (He bought some early Cindy Sherman photos for a modest $150,000 at the Basel.) In a way, aesthetics forms the solid bedrock the art market. But, for lack of any other reliable yardstick, they tend to get tallied in dollars. A major dealer in New York once told Velthuis, the respected Dutch sociologist, art collectors ‘permanently have to explain to themselves as why they spend so much money on it, sometimes up to 40 percent of their net worth.’

When you’re looking for great art, you may spot it simply by its price tag. Of course, top collectors aren’t simply shoppers like anyone else. If they spend right, they can buy the status of cultural patron. No one looks up to you for buying a fleet of Bentleys, but do possess a flock of Richard Serras, and you well become a supporter of culture, Blake Gopnik concludes in a recent essay published in The Newsweek magazine courtesy The Daily Beast.

In effect, it can be argued that most collectors spend their surplus millions on art because they have a genuine belief in its aesthetic value. And the easiest way to gauge the aesthetic ‘sense’ of an art purchase is to check out the ‘cents’ the thing is selling for.

What does prompt high-profile collectors to buy art?

2012-01-11T12:09:00.000-08:00

At this critical and challenging point of time, when only the 1 percent has spare cash to burn, investing in art is more about the cultural value of money, and of art than about finance; about underlining the intrinsic Social Meaning of Money. So the dollars spent at extravagant Art Basel art fair in Miami are more of ‘cultural dollars’, explains the great Princeton sociologist, Viviana Zelizer.

This underlying perception makes them obey their own strange rules. Otherwise why would an ambitious customer spend whopping $575,000 for Ai Weiwei’s perplexing pile of battered stools converted into a nest? In spite of the big celebrity names associated with these objects - and whatever their perceived artistic worth - any curious observer would still wonder: Stools, for good half a million dollars? And three times that for a ubiquitous plain paint on canvas? So ‘why is art so damned expensive?’

This is the question posed in a thought provoking essay recently published in The Newsweek courtesy The Daily Beast. “There’s a pile of simple, and basically unsatisfying, explanations, notes the columnist Blake Gopnik, who discussed the topic with several renowned market players and analysts to dig out the answers.

When Gopnic quizzed the Phillips de Pury auction house chairman, Simon de Pury, as ‘why’s art so damned expensive?’ he emphasized that a bigger picture was always worth more than a smaller one. He pointed out you would pay a hefty premium for a work once possessed by someone famous, apart from that something shown in a museum was worth extra (premium).

“But such explanations only tell us why one object might sell for more than another. They don’t tell us why so many buyers in Miami spend more on a picture than the rest of us spend on a house,” the essayist notes.

Probing the link between art prices and classic economics

2012-01-11T00:08:00.000-08:00

Investing in art is more about the cultural value of money, and of art than about finance; about underlining the intrinsic Social Meaning of Money, argues a new essay published in The Newsweek magazine courtesy The Daily Beast.

Its author Blake Gopnik has worked as chief art critic with The Washington Post before serving as an arts editor-critic in Canada. He has done a doctorate in art history from Oxford University, and has extensively researched and written on topics related to both culture and aesthetic.
Gopnik’s idea is to probe the link, if any, between art prices and classic economics – to know why would Ellsworth Kelly’s blue lozenge on a white rectangle fetch a whopping $1.5 million? Is a glass cabinet carrying surgical instruments created by Damien Hirst really worth $2.5 million?

As we all are aware, despite the flatlined economic conditions, the international art market has been literally roaring. Total worldwide sales touched a record of $5.8 billion in the first half of 2011, up almost 34 percent from the corresponding period in the previous year, according to Artprice.com.

The online research company mentions that 663 works soared past the significant million-euro mark during that time period, 200 more than in the first half of 2008 that held the earlier record. Have the top art prices anything to do with classic economics? If I can’t sell something, I just double the price.” That’s what Ernst Beyeler, the great Swiss dealer who helped found Art Basel, reportedly said.

So, have the top art prices anything to do with classic economics? According to market expert and author of ‘Art of the Deal’, Noah Horowitz, your investment in art is as good as your holdings in bonds, albeit with higher risk. But, that’s not so bad, emphasizes a major New York collector, especially if you’ve nowhere else to park your money. And then bonds aren’t that great to look at! Isn’t so?

Fathoming The Otolith Group’s work on showing in India

2012-01-10T21:18:00.000-08:00

Gallery Project 88 hosts a show entitled ‘Westfailure', incidentally first solo of The Otolith Group in Mumbai.

Westfailure, the title chosen by the two artists, has been adopted from an essay written by British economist Susan Strange in 1999. It’s a homonymic pun that refers to the Westphalia System, the ‘international political system of states claiming exclusive authority and the monopoly of legitimate violence within their territorial limits’, named after the Treaty of Westphalia signed in 1648 by the European powers, in Westphalia outside Munster, Germany.

Strange argued that in order to prosper, ‘production and trade required the security provided by the state. To survive, the state required the economic growth and the credit-creating system of finance. But the latter has now created three major problems that the political system, by its very nature, is incapable of solving. As a term from the recent past of 1999, Westfailure looks forward to our present. ‘Westfailure’ summarizes the pervasive sense of life as it is lived today, in an ideological junkyard strewn with the wreckage of economic systems.

The Otolith Group was founded by Kodwo Eshun and Anjalika Sagar in 2002. Shortlisted for Turner Prize in 2010, It’s named after the calcium carbonate microcrystals within the inner ear that produce and maintain the bodily sense of orientation. They are renowned for their videos, curatorial practice, writing, publications and development of discursive platforms for the close readings of documentary fictions.

The show hosted in collaboration with British Council India was accompanied by a screening of ‘ Nervus Rerum’, a Latin term for the ‘nerve of things’, that confronts the problem of the representability of the Palestinian people confined to a geographical enclave, in this case, Jenin refugee camp, by the longstanding military occupation of the Israeli Defence Force.

Since 2002, The Otolith Group has revisited episodes from the archives of the twentieth century in order to intervene into narratives that aim to capture futurity for market fundamentalism. Their work has proposed aesthetic hypotheses that emphasize methods of comparability and modes of connectability.

‘Westfailure’ at Project 88

2012-01-10T16:05:00.000-08:00

Mumbai-based Project 88 hosts The Otolith Group’s show, entitled ‘Westfailure'. Here is a quick look at their works on view:

The Group’s new work ‘Anathema’ might be understood as an attempt to make visible the archetypal power of what Jodi Dean calls ‘communicative capitalism’ that works by enthralling populations at the level of libido. It recombines magical gestures, isolated from hundreds of advertisements for mobile phones, laptops and flat screen televisions, from the UAE to US and beyond, purchased by the artists.

By confronting the gestural regimes of touching and clicking with images of liquid crystal that provides the material substrates for digital screens, by demoralizing the value of the high definition image and by descending beneath the dimension of the high resolution image into the world of post-cinematic abstraction, it can be understood as a prototype for a counterspell assembled from the occult economy.

‘Timeline’ offers an insight into the scope and scale of ‘The Otolith Trilogy’ (2003–09). Conceived as an epic fabulation, it introduces events and figures from the trilogy, beginning in the late 19th Century and extending into the far future.

Installed in Westfailure as a single channel work, ‘Communists Like Us’ assembles archival photographs produced by Soviet and Chinese agencies that record journeys made by Indian stateswomen to the USSR, Mao’s China and Japan from the mid-1950s to the early 1960s.

Some photographs from ‘Communists Like Us recur’ in Otolith II and in ‘Daughter Products’. ‘Daughter Products’ offers insights into forms of socialist friendship. ‘Be Silent for the Ears of the God…’ dramatizes the figure of the guru as the recurring enactment of a prosthetic Indophilia, characterized outside India, within and across Europe and America and beyond, as a series of over-determined projections, mistaken attributions and persistent phantasms.

One out of many ‘Indophilias’ approaches the supports of the vinyl album record sleeve as a platform for the visions of prosthetic spiritualism. As a medium that invents the public it addresses, the record sleeve facilitates the circulation of a stylistic imaginary that create spaces of identification through which, in the words of Paul Gilroy, ‘cultural and aesthetic exchanges between different populations across the diaspora’ can be constructed.

An Absolut achievement for Bharti Kher

2012-01-10T01:29:00.000-08:00

In another indication of the growing prominence of contemporary Indian art, Bharti Kher has been recently invited to join the Absolut Vodka campaign. The artist addresses a number of sensitive issues like class and consumerism, and draws on her personal experiences to reflect on these. She is known for her appropriation of the motif of bindi, a red dot on the forehead of married women in India, looked at as a curious fashion accessory in the West.

Following in the footsteps of her celebrated artist-husband Subodh Gupta, she has interpreted deceptively simple-looking, albeit amazing Absolut Vodka bottle as part of its iconic ad campaign. Witty, yet sophisticated; contemporary, yet timeless; it has stretched the boundaries between art and ads, starting with the godfather of pop art, Andy Warhol. Damien Hirst, Stella McCartney, Francesco Clemente, Louise Bourgeois, and Gianni Versace are among the other celebrity contributors to this hugely applauded concept, all preserved at the Museum of Wine & Spirits, Stockholm.

A two-dimensional, six-feet tall bottle-shaped magnificent mirror installation by the renowned contemporary artist sports a swirl of bewildering bindis that she often uses as a metaphor for the third eye, to articulate and animate her intentions, conveying a range of connotations and meanings whilst transforming surfaces and objects.

When one stands before the dazzling design of Absolut Vodka bottle, blended in a bindi design with a contemporary touch, one can look at one’s own reflection in the broken mirror, well-framed in a vodka bottle’s shape.

It’s like seeing one own self inside - akin to a genie in a bottle. She elaborates: “I have used broken mirror to convey that it actually provides a chance to see your real self and that there’s nothing like considering it as a symbol of bad luck. It’s a reflection of your true self.” Her work will be displayed in different metros of India before being presented at the Indian Art Fair.

Why are investors looking for alternative asset classes including art?

2012-01-09T23:55:00.001-08:00

Investment assets are seldom treated as objects of intense or hardcore desire. They are mostly considered as mere means to drawing good returns. However, these assets do offer a dual benefit – not just by accruing a reasonable return on their investments to the owners but also a lot of satisfaction and joy by virtue of pride in ownership. Such investments are referred to as passion investments.

What are the investment types/ avenues that one can consider? Various investments would come under this interesting category denoted as passion investment A broad list of it can include investments in works of art, jewelry, collectibles, antiques, watches, wine, sports clubs, luxury automobiles, luxury yachts, music, and performing arts.

It’s not merely about absolute returns. The major goal behind such types of investments is not just monetary gains. While factors like risk-reward ratio and scope for return play a part in these peculiar investment modes, the deciding factor is more often than not preference and inclination of each individual investor based on his or her tastes for owning and taking an active part in the compilation and savoring of the offbeat asset itself.

Interestingly though, the aspect of trying to fulfill aesthetic aspirations yet to become a reality or trying to relive the experience through direct or indirect participation is also there. This mostly holds true in cases where high net worth (HNI) investors spend sizable amount of money on sports clubs’ ownership. It could perhaps be a liking for the sport or the fact that they were not in a position to pursue it in the past. Collecting the items create a sense of active participation and latent satisfaction.

Why are people looking for alternative asset classes? Falling investment yields in most mainstream asset classes including equity and increased market volatility are prompting investors to look for other unconventional investment opportunities that also bring a tangible joy of ownership.

‘Alice in Wonderland’ by Mrinal Dey

2012-01-09T06:21:00.000-08:00

For a milieu besotted with the core idea of worshipping thin as aesthetic epitome, artist Mrinal Dey’s figures stand out as garrulously loud, out-of-shape and inflated beyond proportion…

Look closely. No, they don’t appear thinner; for that is not what he wishes you to see. His figures probe deeper into individual and mass mental-scapes to lay bare the effects of consumerism at a level that is all-pervasive. The fixation with all that glitters and the blinkered pursuit of all that the neighbor possesses, has set the fulcrum of modern existence on blingy show-ism.

This has revolutionized the very culture of consumption, leading very often, to a murky bleakness; an inevitable fallout of selfish, inflated egos and life-patterns. Existences have gone from communal to intensely solitary. Mrinal Dey’s figures, which form part of his new series (‘Alice in Wonderland’; Kolkata-based Ganges Art Gallery), symbolize this acute sense of loneliness, lost in a maze of self-inflicted consumerism.

Slits for eyes, bulbous noses, thick-set lips and jaws, a baldness that places the pointedness of the ears in sharp focus and a neck – or the very pronounced lack of it – attaching the large rotund face to a flabby, disproportionate body, highlight Mrinal Dey’s disturbance with the overt emphasis on the usual trappings of post-modern habitation.

The colors he uses are all solid enough to carefully avoid any merging with the textured backgrounds he creates. This solidity enhances the boldness of his figures endowing them with the intended quality of both awe and repulsion. There’s at the same time, a surrealist overtone to his works, as dreams seem to drift in and out of the minds of his central figures, even as they transfix the viewers with their cold hard stares.

This is why newsprints, brown-paper packing boxes and bar-codes recur time and again, in an attempt, to merge the reality of a culture that is made or marred through media hype and publicity, with the concomitant decay of its innate innocence that finds an outlet only through collective nostalgia – one that too has been increasingly tarnished by the grey of existential predicaments.

Photo artist Dayanita Singh's new series

2012-01-09T00:02:00.000-08:00

A new series by celebrated Photo artist Dayanita Singh is on view at Nature Morte, Gurgaon. Entitled ‘House of Love’, it’s her response to the delirious satisfaction that she derives from the literary works of her favorite writers such as Amitav Ghosh, W.G. Sebald, Orhan Pamuk, Italo Calvino, and Vikram Seth among others), telling a vivid tale of life and how it’s lived the way she best knows how to, through photos compiled into a book.

The suite of works harbors a novelistic approach. Entitled ‘House of Love’, the new body of work is yet elliptical in the multiple subject matters it brings to the fore. She has combined black & white and color photos, for the first ever time in a single series. The images have been shot in India and across the globe, yet hardly any is identified. In fact, all are allowed to be sort of free-floating.

The photos are tethered to one another just by the circumstances of narrations in which they have been placed and grouped (with individual titles like ‘Continuous cities’, ‘Departure lounge’, ‘Being of darkness’, and ‘Theft in a cake shop’; the nine different ‘stories’ ranging in groups of pictures).

Dayanita Singh’s primary medium for the exquisite images and the ubiquitous unifying structure in which this diversity gets rather succinct. An accompanying essay elaborates: “The subjects of her pictures incorporate congested cityscapes and bucolic landscapes. There are portraits of acquaintances and strangers (both spontaneously captured and formally posed); arrangements of household objects and those in museums and offices; the different types of interiors as well as the exteriors of all manner of constructions.”

This element of multiplicity finds a streak of cohesion in proscribed themes that run throughout the project: the romance of travel laced with the mysteries of attraction, and carrying the displaced yearnings of desire.

The solo show by Dayanita Singh continues at Nature Morte, Gurgaon, until January 29, 2012.

‘Picasso, Souza’ at Vadehra

2012-01-08T23:40:00.000-08:00

Francis Newton Souza had a penchant for outrageous quotes. In 1987, in an article, he announced that he was the greatest artist in the world. He was the ‘Picasso of India’ (“Now that Picasso is dead, I am the greatest!”). It is in this context that the exhibition in New Delhi today, is a seminal one.

Close to 100 works sourced from London’s Grosvenor Gallery feature Pablo Picasso and F.N. Souza - founding members of the modern art movements in Europe and India, respectively - side by side. Picasso is widely acknowledged as one of the most influential artists of the 20th century, known for co-founding the Cubist movement in the early 1900s.

At the time when Souza had started exhibiting his work in Europe, Edwin Mullins, the famous art critic, had observed that like Picasso, his (artistic) interventions had been thought outrageous because “the imagination that created them was discovering something about the visual world which no one as yet understood or which everyone had forgotten”.

Art writer Anindita Ghose of The Mint elaborates on the show: “It includes works by the two artists in a wide variety of media - drawings, oil paintings, etchings, linocuts and ceramics—that display their versatility and genius. It explores the exchange of ideas, intellectual movements, and artistic trends between Souza and Picasso, and ultimately between India and the rest of the world. The exhibition also has photos of the artists by various photographers. Nine years after Souza died, this is, in retrospect, a chance to understand it all….”

Interestingly, a column by art critic Uma Nair on the eve of the show contradicts its very basis to state: “Interestingly all sections of media have announced that Souza has been commonly referred to as the Picasso of India. Strangely when MF Husain died this year, there were many international press agencies that announced that Husain was India’s Picasso. Could India have two Picassos? In his lifetime Souza has said many things, he was a great writer and a thinker. But neither did Souza in all his lifetime ever proclaim to Pablo Picasso.”

Mapping the journey of Modernist Art from India

2012-01-08T14:36:00.000-08:00

India’s Modern Masters are in spotlight thanks to a grand international showcase of their major artworks, entitled ‘The Body Unbound’, which also gives a comprehensive and immersive exploration of a socio-politically turbulent phase in India.

In the phase leading up to independence, these rebellious artists often disowned the techniques, styles and even the oil-on-canvas medium taught by British-bred Indian art schools. As the country freed itself from British rule, they had their own liberation, opting for more traditional tempera renderings of local relics, rural folk and gods. Post-1947, they took to a modern, international idiom of expression, styles and media.

To map these transformations, a new show ‘Modernist Art From India: The Body Unbound’ at the Rubin Museum of Art in New York, looks at the enterprising manner in which the modernist artists employed the human figure to express optimism, pain and anxiety, also trying to explore the country’s painting scene in the backdrop of its independence, the partition and the violence that followed.

This grand international museum show indeed brings to life the country’s vibrant visual culture and reveals how the shift from colonial subject to sovereign nation has defined new artistic trends and styles. Beth Citron is the curator of this ambitious showcase that traces how the country’s shift from colonial subject to sovereign nation impacted artistic trends through the milestone figurative work by 23 pioneering artists.

Gathered from local private and institutional collections, they explore the subtle relationship between traditionally Indian, realistic depictions of the human form and modernist ideas, including abstraction. It brings to life the vibrant visual culture of India and illustrates how India’s dramatic rise into a new nation paved the way for startling new artistic styles, apart from illustrating how figuration served as a means of exploring fantasy and the imagined body by blending whimsical modernist abstraction and the human figures’ depiction.

The next two parts of the series will be presented later this year, namely ‘Approaching Abstraction’ and Radical Terrain, with a focus on abstract art and the modern Indian landscape, respectively.

‘The Body Unbound’

2012-01-08T02:34:00.000-08:00

Tracing post-Independence India’s Modern Art evolution, a new international show strives to mystify representations of the figure and the bewildering body in modernist art from India. It includes paintings from the early 1940s up to the mid-1980s that trace the development of Indian modernism, and celebrate the artistically productive dialogue between tradition and innovation.

An accompanying note to the exhibition in New York (supported, in part, by the New Delhi-based Vadehra Art Gallery) explains: “Figuration has been a long, sustained tradition in Indian art and Indian artists had already begun to incorporate secular and non-courtly figures into their works prior to Independence.”

‘The Body Unbound’ starts with traditionalist representations of Indian townspeople and villagers by artists including Jamini Roy, K.K. Hebbar, and Nandalal Bose, as well as selections of PAG-era works. It turns to the sensitive representation of metaphysical Man by late Tyeb Mehta and Akbar Padamsee, and the infusion of narrative figuration through the paintings of artists like Sudhir Patwardhan, Gieve Patel, Bhupen Khakhar, and Nalini Malani. Several of them, as mentioned above, were deeply impacted emotionally by the Hindu-Muslim bloodbath that followed violent partition.

Tyeb Mehta, then an art student his early twenties, witnessed horrific images on a Mumbai street that infiltrated much of his practice thereafter. For example, highly stylized and contorted figures are wailing in ‘The Diagonal’ (1975), intersected and left incomplete, their limbs dispersed on the canvas. Unfortunately, it's an image, which remains relevant to this day. Husain, who died last year at age 95, was fondly called the ‘Picasso of India’.

He freely used the broad, bold brush strokes and skillfully simplified facial features made popular by his Western counterparts. Importantly, he depicted essentially Indian subjects in his oil paintings such as ‘Lady With Lamp’, portraying a blue-‘robed woman; her head, covered - in piety, perhaps, albeit her skirt's hemline stretching non-traditionally quite a few inches above her knees!

Mrinal Dey’s paintings, drawings and sculptures

2012-01-08T02:14:00.000-08:00

Artist Mrinal Dey’s new series of paintings, drawings and sculptures on view at Kolkata-based Ganges Art Gallery, are dotted with figures, all, without an exception, depicted in a manner that is eerily grotesque and yet identifiably human.

The sense of self-contentment stemming purely out of a self-centered complacence seeps through, through the smiles pasted on his figures; a smile that more than serves the purpose it was painstakingly designed for – to instilll a sense of disturbance that can somehow jolt us out of an opium-ised slumber. He therefore may be perceived as Alice in more ways than one. Coming from the simple background that he does, this world is an unfamiliar one for him.

In fact, he is therefore lost and dazed and grappling constantly with a reality that he finds difficult to fathom; where therefore his only way out is his brush, his chisel. His wonderland of course takes on a very different hue from that of Alice’s, in that, the magic he encounters is that variant of a dream, he’d rather call a nightmare.

It's only in articulating his trapping in this puzzling, befuddling socio-cultural mire, through his works of art, does he see an escape route. For dreams have always been just that: not just the subliminal creation of a parallel habitation, but the safest womb in which to turn to, to hide, to use as sacred haven. So even though his visuals are not ‘pretty’ by the canons of social aesthetic, they never pretend to be so. The idea for him is to twist and deform his figures, as in a bad dream, as in a tarnished wonderland, so that they function as true mirrors of contemporary predicamnets.

The sensitivity of this artist, a recipient of the Jackson Pollock Grant for 2010, as reflected in his art comes across in the language he chooses to express it. What is refreshing, albeit grim, about the entire oeuvre, is the steadfastness with which he has avoided all sentimental stereotypes, highlighting blatantly, fact of the matter, as it is.

Is art ‘safe heaven’ in today’s tough times?

2012-01-07T23:58:00.000-08:00

A recent Reuters report (‘As markets plunge, Asia's wealthy flock to art’) discusses the pros and cons of investing in art, considering the various aspects of it. Here’s is what the news report has to say in context of the contemporary art market:

Despite bamboozling price trends of Chinese art now reflecting some strain from ensuing global economic uncertainty, a section of collectors like to believe that its value will continue to go up steadily largely due to continued demand and limited supply. They are betting on more affluent Asian collectors to push the demand.

Despite the art market's vulnerability to shocks, including the 2008 Lehman Brothers collapse, when unrealistic estimates left scores of unsold lots amid tepid bidding even in the red-hot Chinese ceramics market, Asia's rapid wealth accumulation will likely see more and more money flow into art and alternative investments such as wine.

"As East and West get into more of a confluence in taste and in the market place, it will still go up," said Lo, a Cambridge-educated writer and jewellery designer, a slim, elegant woman famously known for wearing mis-matched designer shoes. She is one of Hong Kong's leading art collectors -- her home is stacked with rare Chinese furniture, stone carvings and paintings, including an inkbrush panorama of the Grand Canyon by Chinese 20th century master Wu Guanzhong.

Hong Kong has played a key role in Asia's art market boom. Its auction market turnover -- anchored by Sotheby's and Christie's -- skyrocketed 300 percent from 2009 to 2010, powered by a wave of Chinese millionaires buying art with avid fervor. "Hong Kong has became the sales centre of the world," said Patti Wong, chairman of Sotheby's Asia, with revenue in the former British colony on par with New York and London.

"If you get good works of art, then without any question it is (a safe haven) but it doesn't have the liquidity. That's the difficulty," revealed Sundaram Tagore, whose galleries in Hong Kong and the United States feature a stable of culture-bridging artists.

The Modern masters in spotlight

2012-01-07T22:34:00.000-08:00

Post-Independence, notions of the figure and body became connected with the creation of new cultural identities as well as the broad social and political concerns facing a new nation. The display at New York’s Rubin Museum takes into consideration both psychological and artistic significance of figurative modes in these works.

As India's artists negotiated social, political and professional spaces for themselves in a fast-changing nation, the way they represented the body continually evolved. Young painters like Husain, Souza, Raza and embraced avant-garde European movements such as Expressionism and Cubism, They advocated for a fresh relook on rich Indian art traditions and ethos as well.

After the country gained independence, strands of secularism and modernity strengthened, as artistic collectives like the Delhi Silpi Chakra and the Progressive Artists' Group in Mumbai worked towards establishing and disseminating a new India’s artistic and cultural identities. The groups blended international modernist styles like Expressionism with ideas and imagery, which resonated locally.

Incidentally, paintings by the Modern masters are now commanding high prices, scaling new records at international auctions. Of course, that wasn’t the case just a decade ago. In 2003, Tyeb Mehta’s works drew rather low valuations at auction. But the late artist’s woks set new records subsequently. His ‘Untitled (Figure on Rickshaw, 1984)’ fetched $3.2 million in a recent auction, whereas ‘Saurashtra’ (1983), an abstract canvas by Raza, went for $3.5 million at Christie's London in 2010, a new record for the artist.

Post-Independence paintings are having a positive market momentum. “Apart from increased visibility in international museums, the Indian economic boom is greatly boosting demand for works (made after independence),” Christie's (New York) modern contemporary Indian art specialist Deepanjana Klein explains to Rachel Wolf of The Wall Street Journal, as part of a detailed review of works by Tyeb Mehta, Maqbool Fida Husain, and Syed Haider Raza among others on the eve of a grand international museum show.

The basics and rationale of passion investment

2012-01-07T00:03:00.000-08:00

In a recent ET article, market expert Richa Karpe points out how tangible investments that yield a decent long-term return and also provide enjoyment are getting increasingly popular. Here are the key points of her column that explain the basics and rationale of passion investments:

Along with the above mentioned investments, there is also an increasing trend of investors coming together to pursue investments in areas of their liking or expertise. Groups of private angel investors comprising individuals who take a keen interest in particular fields and are willing to back aspiring start ups have been proliferating in various cities in the country.
Such investments fall under the broad category of alternative assets. The exposure to such investments has to be kept limited and should be ideally be around 10% to 15% of a portfolio's total value.
A lot of such assets including art, wine, collectibles, etc, have shown a fair amount of negative correlation to traditional assets such as bonds or equities. Such assets are, therefore, ideal to diversify one's portfolio.
In times of economic uncertainty, bad news is often good news for collectors and sellers. Therefore, when typical investments are down and when the stock market seems jittery, art, wine, and fine jewelry can be great investments.
These investments come with their own set of issues. They are relatively hard to incorporate into a traditional portfolio. Firstly, they are subject to fads and fashions that keep changing. They are also hard to classify.
Passion investments - be they old master paintings, vintage cars or cases of Bordeaux wine - remain an area of fierce debate among financial advisors. They could at stage turn to be high-risk investments with no or low liquidity, inefficient price discovery mechanisms and high gestation periods.
In conclusion, it can be said that passion investments are an important area for wealthy investors and wealth managers alike and are gaining increasing prominence in investment portfolios throughout the country.

‘Collect what others aren't collecting…’

2012-01-06T23:56:00.000-08:00

“While art often comes straddled with hefty commission, storage and insurance costs, it can serve as a fun portfolio diversifier, mixing decent returns with aesthetic pleasure. Even as the euro zone debt crisis rages and buffets regional stock markets, the Mei Moses Global Art Index, a widely tracked art indicator, showed an 11.8 percent rise in 2011 to November. “

This is the observation made in a recent Reuters report, throwing light on the current state and strengths of the art market. It quotes Bobby Mohseni, director of MFA Asia, an art consultancy, as saying, ""It may not be a good time for sellers but it's an excellent time for buyers. During late 2008 and 2009, I highly advised clients to buy. With Chinese contemporary art, some prices have gone exceptionally high and that's just over a decade ... so it's best to look at upcoming or mid-tier artists."

While stocks on the S&P 500 have outperformed Western art over the past 25 years, according to Mei Moses data, top Chinese and Asian art is still comparatively cheap compared with Western impressionists or American contemporary art. A Mei Moses index for traditional Chinese art showed a 24 percent jump in the first three quarters this year.

Even for those with less purchasing muscle, experts say bargains can still be had in less spotlighted categories, including modern Filipino and Indonesian painters, as well as photography, and Chinese snuff bottles, to name a few.

"Collect what other people aren't collecting," said Tony Miller, a former top Hong Kong government official and long-standing collector of scholars' objects and Chinese art. "If you can't afford Qi Baishi paintings and they're going at HK$2 million a throw, well, go for prints." Qi is one of the masters of inkbrush paintings and his pieces sell for millions of dollars. Owners of Hong Kong's art galleries, many of them crammed along the winding Hollywood Road in the Central district, say timing is the key.

Important international biennials and places to visit to watch art

2012-01-06T13:54:00.000-08:00

In an interesting and insightful essay (‘Where to Go to See Art in 2012’; The New York Times), the director- chief curator of the Studio Museum in Harlem, Thelma Golden, underlines the fact that art is a great starting point for exploring the world. The writer mentions of the fact that it’s art exhibitions and projects which largely determine the itinerary. What else the art expert recommends:
There are so many biennials and triennials, you could combine them for a fascinating itinerary. To start: Arts in Marrakesh Biennale in Morocco February 29 through June 3; the Paris Triennial April to August; the seventh Berlin Biennial April-July; the 11th Havana Biennial May through June 11 in Cuba; Manifesta 9 in Belgium June to September; Documenta in Kassel, Germany, June through September; and São Paulo Biennial (September-December, 2012)
New York is always at the top of the list because at any given moment, as this city is filled with exhibitions that allow people to be reacquainted with art and artists they love, and to discover new art — sometimes in the same institution. This year, there’s the Whitney Biennial 2012 and the New Museum Triennial: 'The Ungovernables'.

In June, the Studio Museum and our peer institutions El Museo del Barrio and the Queens Museum of Art will open the collaborative, multi-site exhibition ‘Caribbean: Crossroads of the World’, surveying art from the Caribbean and offering new ideas about this amazing part of the world and its contributions to art and culture.

One of the most inspiring places to see art is, for me, the Tate Modern in London. It’s among my favorite physical spaces, as the architecture really facilitates engaging with the work on view. You can look forward to the Yayoi Kusama retrospective that opens in February.

Placing museums and art at the center of any itinerary gives you a point of entry for so many wonderful places. The biennial Dak’art is a reason to explore not just Dakar’s visual art, but also its music, performance, design and more; this year’s iteration opens in May.

Renaissance Portrait - Donatello to Bellini

2012-01-06T01:42:00.000-08:00

A new exhibition at the MOMA brings together approximately 160 works—by artists including Donatello, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, Verrocchio, Ghirlandaio, Pisanello, Mantegna, Giovanni Bellini, and Antonello da Messina, and in media ranging from painting and manuscript illumination to marble sculpture and bronze medals, testifying to the new vogue for and uses of portraiture in fifteenth-century Italy.

Featuring many rare international loans, this exhibit at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art - Home presents an unprecedented survey of the period and provide new research and insight into the early history of portraiture. Divided into three sections, it spans a period of eight decades. Beginning in Florence, where independent portraits first appeared in abundance, it moves to the courts of Ferrara, Mantua, Bologna, Milan, Urbino, Naples and papal Rome, and ends in Venice, where a tradition of portraiture asserted itself surprisingly late in the century.

Elaborating on the show, an accompanying note states: “It has been said that the Renaissance witnessed the rediscovery of the individual. In keeping with this notion, early Renaissance Italy also hosted the first great age of portraiture in Europe. Portraiture assumed a new importance, whether it was to record the features of a family member for future generations, celebrate a prince or warrior, extol the beauty of a woman, or make possible the exchange of a likeness among friends.

During the early Renaissance, artists working in Florence, Venice, and the courts of Italy created magnificent portrayals of the people around them—from heads of state and church to patrons, scholars, poets, and artists—concentrating for the first time on producing recognizable likenesses and expressions of personality.

The rapid development of portraiture was linked closely to Renaissance society and politics, ideals of the individual, and concepts of beauty. The object may have been to commemorate a significant event—a marriage, death, the accession to a position of power—or it may have been to record the features of an esteemed member of the family for future generations.”

‘Scripted across the Indian Ocean’

2012-01-05T18:52:00.000-08:00

Above is the title of an interesting joint show on view at Green Cardamom, London. It includes the work of two artists born a generation and an ocean apart: Lala Rukh (born 1948, Lahore) and Muhanned Cader (born 1966, Colombo).

The two first met in 2002, when Lala Rukh invited the latter to the National College of Arts (NCA), Lahore for an artist-in-residence program. Prior to this meeting, they had each independently created a body of work that bore remarkable similarities to each other: Lala Rukh's ‘River in an Ocean’ series (1992-93) and Muhanned Cader’s ‘Nightscapes’ (1999).

In this exhibition, guest curator Mariah Lookman has invited both artists to revisit these bodies of work, as a way of carrying on their earlier (albeit unwitting) conversation. An explanatory note states: “Cader’s work consists of collages and works on paper, both in his characteristic fashion, removing the rectangle that frames most depictions of the ‘landscape’. His shapes reference materials found on the beach. But each ‘painting’ on wood also plays with scale, color, light, sheen and tactility to explore painting as a medium itself.

Lala Rukh’s works appear, at first glance, to be relentlessly opaque and almost impenetrable. Though well known as a feminist activist and a hugely influential art teacher, her own art practice remains relatively less known. Her graphite marks on black carbon paper are subtle, poetic interventions skirting at the fringes of visual perception. Almost daring the viewer to keep looking…

The works on view in the exhibition take a sideways glance at the political backdrop of their making, updating the perspective of the turmoil and violence in both societies during the 1980s and 1990s to present-day realities. In curating this exhibition, Lookman not only revisits a past body of work to find new meanings but creates a space for contemplation, review and reassembly.

‘Faces of Devotion’ at PEM

2012-01-05T06:17:00.000-08:00

An exquisite selection of Indian ritual bronze and metal sculptures is on view at the Massachusetts-based Peabody Essex Museum (PEM). With an emphasis on masks and heads-compelling with their large, wide-open eyes-the exhibition draws attention to the visual exchange between God and devotee, the act of seeing and being seen that is a fundamental component of Hindu devotion.

‘Faces of Devotion: Indian Sculpture from the Figiel Collection’ presents 40 sculptures of Hindu gods, goddesses, animal spirits and deified heroes as depicted in the folk traditions of western and southern India. These works, dating from the 1500s to the 1800s, are select examples of vernacular folk art and offer unique insight into the region's compelling iconography, craftsmanship, and ritual.

Widely regarded as the finest collection of its kind, the Dr. Leo S. Figiel Collection of Indian sculpture was donated to the Peabody Essex Museum in 2006, augmenting the museum's extensive collection of contemporary and traditional Indian art.

‘Faces of Devotion’ was organized by guest curator Cathleen Cummings, Assistant Professor of Art History at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, a scholar with firsthand knowledge of deity worship in India. Pan-Indian gods such as Vishnu, Shiva, and Devi are worshipped and celebrated alongside a host of deities with local and regional significance. Bronze masks and sculptures play a central role in devotional practice. They aid in focusing the devotee's attention by giving physical form to unseen gods and invisible forces.

In household shrines and public temples, these sculptures and the deities they represent are often treated in the manner of honored guests. In the morning, they are gently "awakened," bathed with perfumed water, dressed in fine cloth, and adorned with jewelry and fresh garlands .To delight their senses, incense is burned, a bell is rung, a lamp is waved before their eyes, and food is symbolically offered all before the household begins the day's activities.

(Image courtesy: The PEM)

Exquisite sculptures that reveal the centrality of deity worship in ancient India

2012-01-05T02:26:00.000-08:00

A series of exceptional works on view at the Massachusetts-based Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) reveal the centrality of deity worship in rural India, where devotees place great faith in their powers to protect, grant success, and reverse misfortune.

According to the guest curator of the exhibition, Cathleen Cummings, PEM has installed these se sculptures in a manner that evokes the devotional context in which they were originally used – and also to convey the ceremonial aspects of them. Devotional bronzes, whether cast as masks, plaques or three-dimensional sculpture, exude personality and serve the dual purpose of being the focal point of a shrine and a mobile spiritual effigy in ceremonies.

‘Faces of Devotion’ introduces visitors to an array of revered Indian deities, from Hanuman the monkey god and Panjurli the wild boar to the warrior-goddess Durga and the all-powerful Shiva. The showcase lets visitors connect with another culture through objects that are at once aesthetically absorbing and ritually significant," elaborates Susan Bean, Curator of South Asian and Korean Art at the museum. "We hope that our visitors walk away with an expanded world view and an enhanced understanding of India's rich cultural and artistic heritage."

It gives visitors a chance to dig further, learn more through interactive multimedia, and explore the contemporary relevance and pervasive presence of Hindu gods in diverse aspects of Indian culture, including films, photography, comic books, fine art and more.

The Peabody Essex Museum presents art and culture from New England and around the world. The museum's collections are among the finest of their kind, showcasing an unrivaled spectrum of American art and architecture (including four National Historic Landmark buildings) and outstanding Asian, Asian Export, Native American, African, Oceanic, Maritime and Photography collections.

Along with the exhibition, ‘‘Faces of Devotion’, a series of events were held over time to celebrate a rich legacy of cultural exchange with India, and establishes a strong connection between the rich Indian art and culture represented in its collection!

Formative years of artist B. Prabha

2012-01-05T01:40:00.000-08:00

A Born in the village of Bela, near Nagpur in Maharashtra in 1933, B. Prabha first studied at the Nagpur School of Art before arriving in Mumbai for further honing her skills as an artist, albeit with hardly any support – monetary or otherwise.

It was a meager existence with no source of sustenance except for some pieces of family jewelry that she sold to survive through this tough phase. She completed a Government Diploma in Painting & Mural Painting from Sir J.J School of Art, Mumbai (1954-55) where she received a scholarship to specialize in mural painting. Her first show, while she was still in the art school, proved a memorable one for her. Homi J. Bhabha, an eminent Indian scientist, acquired three of her paintings. The gesture was a big confidence booster and she never looked back after that.

Recounting her formative years, she had stated: “I dreamt of being a singer and I was equally good at painting. My elder brother advised that I couldn’t master two vocations at a time. So I had to make a choice between singing and painting after completing my matriculation. That was very difficult, indeed! And after a lot of introspection, I opted for painting. At that time, there were not too many women painters (in India). I respected Amrita Sher Gil a lot. My ambition was to become a renowned painter (just like her) and to take my paintings to all corners of the world.”

B. Prabha’s works have been shown in a series of solos and group exhibitions at prestigious venues in India and abroad, including ‘Shradhanjali’, a show dedicated to her husband, sculptor B. Vithal whom she married in 1956. During their long period of struggle, the two were often supported by other fellow artists who offered them a place to stay and even to store their works. Her marriage, in a way, was turning point in her life as the fellow artist changed her perspective both as an individual and also as an artist…

Life and art of a celebrated artist of her era

2012-01-04T14:41:00.000-08:00

One of the most critically acclaimed and prolific artists of her generation, she worked mainly in oil, her each canvas usually executed in a single dominant color.

Her early works were modern, freely rendered paintings. Gradually, she started experimenting and soon developed what was to be recognized as her signature style. Her subject matter encompassed a wide array of concerns that she harbored, while observing the life and people around.

In the graceful forms of her female figures, the artist intensely examined their inner world, sufferings and courage. Her work was not merely a portrayal of the female forms; it brought their suppressed sentiments to the fore. It was not just coincidental that her inspiration as an artist was Amrita Shergil.

‘B. Prabha - From the Album’, a selection of works by the late artist, was on display at The Viewing Room, Mumbai, earlier this year. Charting out her career, an accompanying note mentioned: "On her canvases, she immortalized the fisherwomen of Mumbai.B. Prabha’s graceful elongated figures of pensive rural women, with each canvas in a single dominant color still continue to mesmerize art lovers.

Other selected posthumous exhibits in acknowledgement of her greatness as an artist are 'Celebrations 2011', Kumar Gallery, New Delhi (2011); ‘Winter Moderns’, Aicon Gallery, New York (2008); ‘Pot Pourri’, Gallery Beyond, Mumbai (2008). She won many noteworthy honors and awards, such as the All India Fine Arts and Crafts Society (AIFACS) Award, New Delhi and First Prize at the Bombay State Art Exhibition (1958), among others. Her work is with several major collections.

About her motivation and concerns as an artist, she once had stated: “The core theme of my paintings was always women and their sufferings. I have seen them and observed them closely. I did not just thought of the urban woman but also those in rural areas, who were as creative. They exude so many emotions to portray...”

Passionate portrayal of female forms and concerns

2012-01-04T06:39:00.000-08:00

B. Prabha is best known for her inimitable and instantly recognizable style of fascinating figures mostly of ubiquitous rural womenfolk. Rather pensive looking, their graceful elongated features invariably holds your attention.

Indeed, a significant aspect of the artist’s body of work was her effort to portray the plight of women from different strata of society, who silently suffered without raising a murmur. She tried to give voice to them. Her representation of the fisherwomen of Mumbai was indeed unique.

B. Prabha portrayed these simple, rustic women and their immense willpower to struggle and survive against all odds. Their appearance with distinctive hairstyles and bright sarees accentuating their distinct persona depicted in her inimitable style formed the core of her practice.

As she matured as an artist, she developed an elegant, formal style, which was very much characteristic of her artistic excellence that she reached through her immense perseverance and intense observation. Her career graph, encompassing her journey from a humble village to hustle-bustle of a city was quite interesting. She dreamt to become an artist at a time when there were not that many successful women artists around in India.

Her paintings covered a wide gamut of subjects and themes, from languid landscapes to pressing social issues like hunger and homelessness. But the core theme of her paintings was always women and their sufferings. Over time, her yearning for simplicity, even as she dealt with the complexities of life, drew her to oils. Particularly moved by the struggles of rural women, who soon turned the core theme of her oeuvre, the sensitive artist developed an elegant, formal style.

The subject matter and the style remained her trademark. The prevailing social realities, the hardships and oppression that women faced and their unexpressed sentiments as they faced life with a sort of numbness influenced her practice. She made a strong statement on the same through her art akin to odes to their spirit and the endless plight.

Recap of Indian art scene in 2011 - I

2012-01-04T02:30:00.000-08:00

Sorrow was perhaps overarching sentiment in 2011 as Indian art witnessed the death of its two stalwarts - Jehangir Sabavala and M F Husain- bringing to an end a glorious era.

While Husain, who started as a billboard painter, became a globally recognized artist, modern painter Sabavala was known for his mesmerizing mixed impressionist as well as cubist styles. The former died in self-exile in London at the age of 95, whereas Sabavala died at the age of 89.

Also two other prominent personalities in the domain of art, Sohan Qadri and Biren De, passed away. While De was known for his geometric, luminous works of art, artist-poet Qadri was renowned for his unique tantrik ideology laced with art.

Of course, as the PTI news report mentioned, all was not sheer gloom for Indian art this year as the country gave a warn welcome to renowned artist S H Raza, celebrating his homecoming after six long decades of stay in Paris. One of the founder members of the Progressive Art Group (PAG), along with the likes of Husain, Souza and Gaitonde, he carved a niche for himself.

The year 2011 also heralded several new initiatives, beginnings and launches; Officials of the Paris-based Louvre came calling at the year end with an aim of exploring strategic partnership for its voyage into the country’s thriving art scene. As we all know, Louvre is one of the world's most renowned and widely visited museums.

In another significant development, an official Indian pavilion was showcased at the prestigious Venice Biennale in June. The official Indian showcase was supported by the Union Ministry of Culture and New Delhi-based Lalit Kala Akademi (LKA). There are plans in place to set up 1st Indian art Biennale in the beginning of the new year. It is reportedly directed by India’s two most celebrated artists, namely Bose Krishnamachari and Riyas Komu.

Year gone by, an ‘event’ful one for Indian art - II

2012-01-03T23:34:00.000-08:00

An interesting news report from news agency PTI describes how it was a rather mixed albeit fulfilling year for Indian art. Here are some of the key highlights from the year just gone by:

The year witnessed passing away of a few giants like Husain, Sabavala, Sohan Qadri and Biren De. On the positive side, a new crop of artists from India showed across the world; Lyon Museum of Contemporary Art hosted "Indian Highway IV" and is traveling to Europe, South America and Asia. The Paris Centre Pompidou showed "Paris Delhi Bombay", between May and September.
The year began with the 3rd India Art Summit, a three-day event that saw drama when M F Husain's works were installed then brought down and subsequently remounted with security. A bigger edition with new partners is scheduled in 2012.
Chennai hosted its first international art fair in the month of March. 'Art Chennai' featured over 2000 works by contemporary artists spread over 18 sites in the city. The India Art Collective- an Internet-based art fair- was launched in November.
Leading names from the art world paid a visit to India; Swiss curator Hans Obrist interviewed 25 intellectuals back-to-back in an eight-hour marathon organized by Khoj.
British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor's first retrospective in India at National Gallery of Modern Art's new wing here and Mehboob studio in Mumbai showcased three decades of his work.

Rakhi Peswani in residence courtesy Kosmopolis Hague

2012-01-03T13:33:00.000-08:00

Rakhi Peswani was recently an artist in Residence courtesy Kosmopolis Hague. During her stay in the Netherlands she studied Dutch Art from Indian perspective apart from participating in the Hague India Month. She also had some teaching assignments with art academies, a collaboration project with a Dutch theatre Director and an exhibition of her works at Denneweg Today. A presentation of 'Bodies/Subterrain (Eurydice & Sita)', a Presentation of her residency work at Vrije Academie, also took place.

A recipient of Foundation for Indian Contemporary Art’s Emerging Artist Award, she obtained her Bachelor’s degree in painting and Master’s degree in sculpture from the Faculty of Fine Arts, M. S. U, Vadodara. Peswani’s solos include ‘Matters Under the Skin’ with The Guild, Mumbai at Art HK - Asia One 2011; ‘Intertwinings’, Vadehra Art Gallery, New Delhi, 2009; ‘Sonnet for Silent Machines’, at Jehangir Nicholson Gallery & The Guild Art Gallery, Mumbai, 2007. Among her selected group shows are ‘Generation in Transition’ Curated by Magda Kardasz,Warsaw; and ‘Bring Me A Lion’, The Hunt Gallery, St.Louis, Missouri(2010).

Her point of departure is to locate a visual / verbal / tangible language that blends the local character of our system and the global character of verbal language. The possible dual responsibility of a language allows her to articulate some of the present identities of an artist working within contemporary realities. She further layers this juxtaposition with the inclusion of verbal text, fabricating discreet ironies within the material processes to depict contemporary identities.

She titles her works with equal sensitivity with which she models her works. Her occupation with the former (i.e. naming the work) stems out of a semi-permanent process of conceiving a word or any linguistic unit by visualizing its nearest form through an image, and then executing the same with absolute equilibrated prowess.

Rakhi Peswani’s engagement with materials roots deep down to her social, cultural and intellectual being, therefore it is not just the image of the work that speaks on her behalf, but it is also the material which completes the chronicle.

‘…time Husain’s works were shared again.’

2012-01-03T12:03:00.000-08:00

Mumbai-based Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA) is showcasing 20 works by late MF Husain as part of a four-week solo show, starting December 19.

Thanks to the event, the legendary artist is back in his beloved city, at least in spirit. Forced into exile after he painted provocative Hindu goddesses’ images, which offended the by right-wing radicals, the artist died in London, aged 95 last year, almost five years after he fled Mumbai - his home for almost 72 years.

“Maqbool Fida Husain was India's most iconic and prolific artist - and painted right up until two weeks before his death in London at the age of 95.”A New Delhi based writer on art & culture, Sudha G Tilak, wrote in The BBC News obit essay. “Husain was a protean maverick who embraced the free market, took to making cinema, angered Hindu radicals at home with his provocative work, gamely took leaving India in his stride, and accepted Qatari nationality.”

A timely news article in The Hindustan Times by Riddhi Doshi elaborates on the show: “The city of his dreams is showcasing once again the works of its most popular artist, six months after his death. A number of Husain treasures are on display, including a wooden horse that Husain created in the 1950s, when his first daughter was born; a rare silk screen painting from the 1970s; a painting of a village scene that belonged to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960 and several others works on canvas and paper, each priced between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 crore.”

The show takes place amid heavy security, but owner of the gallery, Tushar Sethi, believes all the trouble will be well worth it eventually. He has been quoted as saying: “Husain was a legend. One of the most prolific Indian artists, he created 30,000 to 50,000 paintings in his lifetime, yet his works are in great demand. He is the reason the average Indian has any idea what modern art is. It is time his works were shared once again,” Sethi quipped, underlining the significance of the show.

A 'homecoming' for late Husain

2012-01-02T22:39:00.000-08:00

A show of late MF Husain’s important works at The Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA), Mumbai ends on January 13. The legendary artist’s pursuit to trace his cultural roots coupled with his willingness to grasp diverse cultural influences made him one of the most recognizable names internationally.

Thanks to the event, Husain is back in his beloved city, at least in spirit. Forced into exile after he painted provocative Hindu goddesses’ images, which offended the by right-wing radicals, the artist died in London, aged 95 last year, almost five years after he fled Mumbai - his home for almost 72 years.

Now, several works by the late master are on display at a renowned Mumbai art gallery. The Institute of Contemporary Indian Art (ICIA) is hosting them in a month-long show amid heavy security. Owner of the gallery, Tushar Sethi, has been quoted as saying in an interview: “We are not displaying any of Husain’s paintings of goddesses. We don’t want to take any chances.”

“Maqbool Fida Husain was India's most iconic and prolific artist - and painted right up until two weeks before his death in London at the age of 95.” A New Delhi based writer on art & culture, Sudha G Tilak, wrote in The BBC News obit essay. “Husain was a protean maverick who embraced the free market, took to making cinema, angered Hindu radicals at home with his provocative work, gamely took leaving India in his stride, and accepted Qatari nationality.”

A timely new article in The Hindustan Times by Riddhi Doshi elaborates on the show: “The city of his dreams is showcasing once again the works of its most popular artist, six months after his death. A number of Husain treasures are on display, including a wooden horse that Husain created in the 1950s, when his first daughter was born; a rare silk screen painting from the 1970s; a painting of a village scene that belonged to Jawaharlal Nehru in 1960 and several others works on canvas and paper, each priced between Rs 5 lakh and Rs 2.5 crore.”

Art exchange between India and China

2012-01-02T21:12:00.000-08:00

A group of Indian and Chinese artists groups recently presented their works in three public spaces within the colonial part of Shanghai. This collaborative art event resulted from a series of contacts, reciprocal visits and discussions involving artists, curators and intellectuals from India and China.

The title signaled the invitation to encounter locations and histories across old and new borders. An accompanying note by Chang Tsong-Zung and Chaitanya Sambrani mentioned: “Despite market driven interest in the contemporary art of these two countries, these has been little, if any, interaction between the two art cultures in recent times. Awareness of respective art practice is limited to occasional encounters at art fairs in different parts of the world.

Place, time and play have connotations of location, history and creativity, respectively. Reckonings with place imply an understanding of contextual difference, and an attempt to enter another site or location. Taking time is both a requirement of this process, and an opportunity to encounter a different sense of historical time, and for artists to think about and work with the formidable burdens of tradition as well as current economic, political and artistic conditions.

"The invitation to 'play' is extended on the premise that idea of play (and the ludic instinct that underpins it) is a fundamentally life-affirming gesture, too often lost in the midst of the quest for topical issues that the art object must address. Through its invitation to indulge in a basic and universal human activity (and need), the project hopes to inaugurate a more lasting series of relationships between artist communities across the two nations.

“For more than a century, challenges of imperialism and capitalism have forced India and China to develop strategies that have profoundly transformed both societies. To share this experience is valuable for Indian and Chinese artists alike. For China today, after a century of revolutions, it is important to remember this history of cultural self-transformation; it is critical to remind ourselves that in our imagination of the world there is not just the West, but also the West Heavens.

Meanwhile, Guangdong Museum of Art The special unit curated by West Heavens Project for the 4th Guangzhou Triennial brought the films by the past leading Indian avant garde filmmaker Mani Kaul and the video installation works by artist Rambir Singh Kaleka to Guangzhou.

A spotlight on Dhrupadi Ghosh and Prajakta Potnis

2012-01-02T09:21:00.000-08:00

Indian artists Dhrupadi Ghosh and Prajakta Potnis were dispatched to Shanghai in late 2011. The former’s Her practice sails through painting, site-specific sculptural installations to public art interventions. Her work dwells between the intimate world of an individual and the world outside which is separated sometimes only by a wall. She refers to the wall as a witness to history that has traces of inhabitance embedded within.

She tries to contextualize the wall from a middle class home to the walls that build intuitions with a membrane through which imperceptible elements pass and affect the psyche of individuals. How resolutions passed, transgress and enter an individual’s private space. The wall becomes a starting point within her work through which she addresses social and individual anxieties. Potnis effortlessly weaves complexities of emotions and the veracity of today’s times through her practice.

Dhrupadi Ghosh triggers a process of taking a maiden name Wahshat. She intrigues a conversation on land make where street is the witness of mega city camp. Thus she preferred moving ahead from a desktop view to a ‘non- conditioned to view’ province of experiential streets.

While studying in Villa Arson and working at serigraphy studio, teacher Anne said “are you going to place the stickers in gallery”? The stickers said ‘en fait’ and ‘absurd’ were placed around the walls of Le ray and jean Medecin overnight. Petite silkscreen stickers offset or digi posters, sloganeering or simple stencils mark the physical texture of a barren or macro active space. ‘Experience as habitation’ intervenes the social matrix of functioning as a performer. She thinks that ‘labor’ brings her some pint of power and interactive mode of operation to push the boundaries.

The fading landscape, deportation of ‘once a believer’ and the ‘inclusive’ deal of real-estate disturbs and doesn’t let you sleep’ .Yet she knows that one can do her part with the public bodies of work as some unit mass. The third person, may it be the viewer can generate force to it, and the whole process gets the motion. Rest is not in control. So creating a performative space, reactivating the particles could be the soul choice of an immigrant body like of hers.

Even as Dhrupadi Ghosh and Prajakta Potnis visited Shanghai, Chinese artists Zheng Bo and Liu Wei, together with Taiwanese curator Amy Cheng were in Delhi. Their collective thoughts, discussions, and notes will gradually develop themselves into art works in the months to come.

Of Value and Labour’ by Ravi Agarwal

2012-01-01T23:50:00.000-08:00

Mumbai based Guild gallery is hosting a series of works, entitled ‘Of Value and Labour’, by Ravi Agarwal. A multi-faceted creative personality, he is a photographer artist, writer, curator and environmental activist, who explores issues of urban space, ecology, capital in an interrelated ways working with photographs, video, performance, on-site installations and public art.

Some of the works being presented in the exhibition were documented in a monograph titled ‘Down and Out: Labouring under Global Capitalism,’ Jan Breman, Arvind Das and Ravi Agarwal, OUP, 2000, New Delhi. A curatorial note to his new solo elaborates: “Value is added throughout the chain with labor and technology, as both become equated in monetary terms.

"An ‘aura’ of desirability determines the price, till it becomes worthless, as waste, only to be recovered back into the commodity cycle by the labor of the waste picker. There is an ongoing theatre of aura and decay. Intertwined in this economy are narratives of many lives, often homogenized through contestations of power and powerlessness."

The interrupted cycle of nature is inscribed by mass produced commodities which serve to fulfill wants and desires, and direct lives and materials. A commodity is, in the first place, an object outside of us, a thing that by its properties satisfies human wants of some sort or another.

The nature of such wants, whether, for instance, they spring from the stomach or from fancy, makes no difference. Neither are we here concerned to know how the object satisfies these wants, whether directly as means of subsistence, or indirectly as means of production.” It explains, quoting Marx.

Ravi Agarwal has participated in several international shows including Documenta XI (Kassel 2002), ‘Horn Please,’ Kunstmuseum, Bern, 2007; ‘Indian Highway’ (2009 ongoing); ‘Generation in Transition,’ National Gallery of Art, Warsaw; ‘The Eye is a Lonely Hunter, Images of Humankind,’ at Fotofestival Mannheim_ludwigshafen_Heidelberg; ‘After the Crash’ at Museo Orto Botanico, Rome; his recent solo show being ‘Flux: dystopia, utopia, heterotopia,’ Gallery Espace, New Delhi. He also co-curated a twin city public art project, Yamuna-Elbe. Public. Art. Outreach.

A biennale event collaborates art from Indonesia and India

2012-01-01T21:04:00.000-08:00

Biennale Jogja XI / Equator # 1’, is the first in a series of five international biennales to take place in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The geographical point of reference for these Biennales is countries that are located near the equator (23.27º north and south of it) and the series will see Indonesia’s cultural engagement with the participating countries.

‘Shadow Lines’ is the first edition that has forty artists from Indonesia and India collaborating in the ongoing exhibition. It suggests imaginary lines that draw people together and pull them apart; it also refers to geo-political borders and the creation of modern states in South Asia.

Curated by Alia Swastika (Indonesia) and Suman Gopinath (India), the Biennale, with its overarching theme of ‘religiosity, spirituality and belief’ will attempt to present ways in which artists from the two countries address and interpret their contemporary conditions, informed by their personal experiences, as also by the political structures of the countries they live in.

Participating artists include Atul Dodiya, Archana Hande, Anita Dube, Amar Kanwar, N S Harsha, Prabhavati Meppayil, Sreshta Rit Premnath, Pushpamala N, Riyaz Komu, K.P Reji, Sheela Gowda, Shilpa Gupta, Sheba Chhachhi, Sakshi Gupta, Valsan Koorma Kolleri, Setu Legi, Krisna Murti, Jompet Kuswidananto, Arahmaiani, Wedhar Riyadi, Andy Dewantoro, Christine Ay Tjoe, Paul Kadarisman, Albert Yonathan, Akiq AW, Ariadhitya Pramuhendra, Iswanto Hartono, Wimo Ambala Bayang, Tromarama, Octora, Theresia Agustina, Titarubi, RE Hartanto, Nurdian Ichsan, Wiyoga Muhardanto, Erika Ernawan, Melati Suryodarmo, Arya Panjalu / Sara Nuytemans, Ruangrupa, Irwan Ahmett.

Besides the main exhibition in two venues, there will be several parallel programmes and special projects like the Equator Festival with the contemporary reinvention of the Ramayana ballet, seminars, artists’ talks and community projects. Spelling out the core philosophy of Biennale Jogja, organizers state: “The event will look further towards the future, open up new perspectives and develop confrontations that engage convention and the establishment by examining similar situations all over the world.

“The discourse of contemporary art has become very dynamic, but we still notice that the dichotomy of center and periphery remains very strong. There is the need to identify new opportunities and seek out more valuable meaning in a biennale event.”

‘Generation in Transition: New Art from India’

2012-01-01T08:59:00.000-08:00

A new group exhibition, entitled ‘Generation in Transition’, presents the artworks of a young generation of artists of Indian origin, living and working in India, as well as in America and Europe. It is the first extensive showcase of contemporary art from this region presented in Lithuania.

An accompanying note to the show curated by Magda Kardasz states: “For about twenty years now, India has been experiencing an enormous economic and technological development, which has had a substantial impact on social structures. This change, with its positive and negative aspects, is frequently reflected in the works of contemporary artists, especially in those of the youngest ones who have grown up in these interesting times of transition.

“Over the last ten years, contemporary art from India has become very popular. Big group exhibitions have so far been shown in Europe, the United States and China. Private galleries — mostly from New Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore — have built a local art-market and became important players on the international scene. Non-commercial organizations — such as KHOJ and the SARAI Centre for the Study of Developing Societies in Delhi and in Bangalore, respectively as well as art-schools are opening up spaces for independent ideas and projects.”

This particular show focuses on young- and youngest-generation artists in an attempt to capture the condition of the mind and spirit of a generation trying to redefine itself, to find a place for itself between a sense of attachment to the national tradition, history, and an increasingly globalized and ‘technologized’ reality.

Among the participating artists are Jaishri Abichandani, Prayas Abhinav, Ravi Agarwal, Ashish Avikunthak, Sarnath Banerjee, Devendra Banhart, Ansuman Biswas & Jem Finer, Nikhil Chopra, Baptist Coelho, Shezad Dawood, Rohini Devasher, Gauri Gill, Shilpa Gupta, Tushar Joag, Vishwas Kulkarni, Swati Khurana, Anay Mann, Piotr Młodożeniec, Rakhi Peswani, Prajakta Potnis, Prasad Raghavan, Gitanjali Rao, Akshay Rathore, Malik Sajad, Sharmila Samant, Mithu Sen, Charmi Gada Shah, Tejal Shah, Yashas Shetty, Bharat Sikka, Janek Simon, Praneet Soi, Kiran Subbaiah, Anup Mathew Thomas, Navin Thomas, and Nandini Valli Muthiah.

Highlights from the 2011 art-scape

2012-01-01T01:00:00.000-08:00

A comprehensive report from the news agency, PTI, aptly sums up how it was a mixed year for Indian art, especially since it lost a few giants. Here are the highlights from 2011:

The year began with the 3rd India Art Summit, a three-day event that saw drama when M F Husain's works were installed then brought down and subsequently remounted with security. A bigger edition with new partners is scheduled in 2012.

Chennai hosted its first international art fair in the month of March. 'Art Chennai' featured over 2000 works by contemporary artists spread over 18 sites in the city. The India Art Collective, an online art fair, was launched in November.

Leading names from the art world paid a visit to India; Swiss curator Hans Obrist interviewed 25 intellectuals back-to-back in an eight-hour marathon organized by Khoj.

British-Indian artist Anish Kapoor's first retrospective in India at National Gallery of Modern Art's new wing here and Mehboob studio in Mumbai showcased three decades of his work.

One of the largest museums in America, The Art Institute of Chicago, is developing a major exhibition on royal arts of Jaipur, sourcing centuries-old royal art work from collections at Delhi's National Museum, London's Victoria Albert Museum and the Palace Museum and Albert Museums of Jaipur. "We are beginning a monumental exhibition on the royal art from Jaipur in Chicago in the year 2013," President and Director, ARTIC, James Cuno was quoted as saying during his visit here.

Meanwhile China is finalizing plans to build a museum at Rabindranath Tagore's family residence in Kolkata to introduce the bard's writings, paintings and other work done during his visits to the neighboring country. At a book launch function in Delhi Chinese ambassador to India Zhang Yan said he had visited Tagore's home in Jorasanko in Kolkata to finalise the location of setting up of the "small museum that will introduce Tagore's works in China."

The rich painterly traditions showcased in full glory

2011-12-31T16:28:00.000-08:00

A new show that celebrates India's rich painterly traditions marks the inaugural rotation in the new Asian Paintings Gallery. The new thematic presentation, entitled ‘Gems of Rajput Painting’ that takes place courtesy MFA, Boston, showcases the magnificent art tradition in its full glory.

It's divided into four themes of particular interest to Rajput painters: romance, devotion, heroism, and courtly life. They looked to love poetry for romantic inspiration, especially texts that drew upon amorous relationships—heartfelt and even heartbreaking—between courtly men and women, such as Dipak raga, in which a couple’s passion prompts objects all around them to burst into flame.

Ragamala paintings illustrate the mood of particular modes of North Indian classical music (ragas), very often in the form of romantic scenarios. Another example of romantic love is seen in The hour of cowdust, where the god Krishna, as a youth, was a mischievous cowherd who stole the hearts (and sometimes the clothes) of local milkmaids.

Hindu gods also figure prominently in Rajput paintings as symbols of spiritual purity, or as sometimes meddlesome deities. A notable devotional work is Devagandhari Ragini, which shows two courtly ladies flanking a representation of the god Shiva in the form of a garlanded lingam (phallic symbol). Images of heroism and epic confrontations between good and evil were also favored by Rajput artists.

The exhibition showcases the dramatic Battle between Arjuna and Karna, the central confrontation of the Mahabharata. Similarly, The victory of Kali features the great goddess Devi, who created a frightening creature named Kali to defeat demonic foes. The final theme, courtly life, is expressed in images that reinforce the ideals of kingship, convey political messages, and show whimsical scenes of royal leisure.

Included among them is Krishna celebrates Holi with Radha and the gopis, attributed to Nihal Chand), which depicts Krishna and Radha celebrating the festival of Holi on the terrace of a palace, as though they were royals from the Kishangarh court.

A mathematician turned artist celebrates life

2011-12-31T00:42:00.000-08:00

Chennai-based A.V. Ilango is an artist, a teacher and a mathematician, all rolled one. Coming from a modest background, he encountered quite a fierce opposition to his passion for art.

However, true passion and true artistic instincts ultimately prevail. He did pursue his dreams even while working as a Maths teacher. His perseverance finally worked and he became a renowned artist. He is now able to paint and also has formed an Art Centre to teach art and conduct art related events.

With mathematical ratios, his work has the perfect compositions. It has figures at an angle to
exude dynamism, with the icons occupying most of the canvas space. In them a frame is painted itself within a frame. The artist uses a palette knife for applying paint on canvas. His bold, strong strokes display a great vibrancy, a touch of immediateness in his paintings.

His solo show, comprising a mix of his most recent and earlier works is on view at the Mumbai-based Jamaat Art Gallery. It amplifies the spirit and philosophy of his practice. Elaborating on his style of painting and his persona, an accompanying not by Pravina Mecklai points out: “Overcoming a personal tragedy, the artist has opted to celebrate life. He looks to delight in the little joys, all the pleasures, the energy, the music, the dance, the rituals and the whole rhythm of life.”

The artist seeks inspiration largely from the fascinating postures and flamboyance of the devoted temple drummers and dancers. Their colors, their vibrancy, their movements and their complete surrendering to the moment while they perform for celebrating the glory of life; all reflect in his paintings.

A.V. Ilango’s canvases are all about bold colors, bold attitude and bold strokes. They spell the passion and flair of a joyous celebration of life that this mathematician turned artist indulges in each moment, which make his works worth a look.

‘Cultural Olympiad’ before the 2012 London Olympics

2011-12-30T06:22:00.000-08:00

Works by David Hockney, Damien Hirst and Lucian Freud will headline the mega ‘Cultural Olympiad’, a series of significant arts events in the run-up to the keenly awaited London 2012 Olympics, while JMW Turner and Pablo Picasso will be the subjects of two landmark shows.

Over 150 works by David Hockney will be on view at the Royal Academy in the first major exhibit from January 21 next year to showcase his landscapes. After spending time in Los Angeles for three decades, the artist has returned to Bridlington, east Yorkshire, an area that has inspired several of his large-scale landscape works, like his giant painting of Woldgate Woods.

The show will feature drawings, paintings, and some ‘new technology’ pieces by the 74-year old artist, who has seamlessly embraced the digital age, with artworks on iPad and iPhone. For the first time, his films will also be shown. He has often revealed of having been inspired by Picasso. And co-incidentally, the Spanish artist will form the subject of a show at Tate Britain in a couple of months’ time.

‘Picasso and Modern British Art’ runs from at the gallery from February. It will feature over 150 works from the various public and private collections across the globe. The exhibit will chart his emergence in Britain as both a celebrity and a controversial figure. February will also witness the launch of a highly anticipated show in recent years; it’s Lucian Freud Portraits showcase at the National Portrait Gallery, including 100 of his works on paper and paintings lent by private collections and museums around the world.

His final unfinished work just before his death ‘Portrait of the Hound’ (2011) - an unfinished nude of his assistant with his dog, will be shown for the first time. Later in March, the National Gallery and Tate Britain collaborate on an exhibit of works by JMW Turner and Claude Lorrain, the 17th-century French landscape artist.

The five top exhibitions in the UK not to be missed

2011-12-30T00:34:00.000-08:00

Here’s a quick glance at the five top shows in the UK not to be missed next year, especially if you are going to visit the London Olympics. You may check them online for a sumptuous art treat.

Picasso & Modern British Art, Tate Britain (Feb 15 – July 15)

More than 150 works from major public and private collections around the world, including 60 by Picasso at Tate (www.tate.org.uk).
Picasso's paintings considered alongside works by artists he inspired including Hockney, Henry Moore, Graham Sutherland and Francis Bacon, whose Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, 1944, will be on display.

Damien Hirst, Tate Modern (April 4 - Sep 9)

First major UK retrospective of Hirst's career at Tate.
More than 70 of his seminal works, including the £7 million pickled shark, The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living, 1991, and Mother and Child Divided, 1993, the bisected cow and calf which won the Turner Prize in 1995.
Highlights include a range of Hirst's trademark spot, spin and butterfly paintings, and the installation, 'In and Out of Love', 1991.

David Hockney show, Royal Academy (Jan 21 – April 9)

More than 150 of Hockney's works spanning 50 years, focusing on his large-scale landscapes (www.royalacademy.org.uk).
First show of Hockney's films. First major display of Hockney's "new technology" works created on his iPhone and iPad.
Highlights include ‘Rocky Mountains and Tired Indians’, 1965; ‘Garrowby Hill’, 1998; and ‘The Road Across The Wolds’, 1997.

Turner Inspired, National Gallery (Mar 14 – June 5)

The most extensive study of Claude Lorrain's influence on Turner, including oils, watercolors and sketchbooks from both (www.nationalgallery.org.uk).
Works on loan from Tate Britain and other collections, including Keelmen Heaving in Coals by Night, 1835, from the National Gallery of Art, Washington DC.

Lucian Freud Portraits, National Portrait Gallery (Feb 9 – May 27)

More than 100 of Freud's paintings. First display of Freud's last painting, Portrait of the Hound, 2011 (www.npg.org.uk).
Works on loan from international public and private collections, including MOMA New York and Art Institute of Chicago.

Striving to raise art awareness quotient

2011-12-29T04:25:00.000-08:00

Flow is an art initiative that works across the twin domains of education and culture. It looks to create exciting learning experiences for people of all ages.
Flow was formed in 2006 of a passion to improve the engagement between cultural heritage, science and arts organisations and the public audiences that they serve.

Run by Bridget McKenzie, former Head of Learning at the British Library, and her colleague Mark Stevenson, all its work is based on the belief that ‘we are all lifelong learners, and that learning experiences must be rich and contextualized in order to be meaningful. For more about our method of creative and cultural learning.’

In 2010, Flow opened an office in Delhi to provide an array of interventions to ensure academic enrichment on basis of its Creative & Cultural Learning model. Though it has consulted internationally in countries like Russia and the US, the Delhi branch is its first ever international outpost.

Eliza Hilton, an educator and Katherine Rose, a museologist are the two directors of Flow Associates in India. When the two first visited museums and heritage sites in India a few years ago, they were surprised by what they saw or did not see - families in museums or even children. When they visited Ajanta-Ellora caves, the two were distressed by the fact that children were treating it as a place for picnic.

This is what Flow wants to set right. It goes by an educational philosophy in which learning interventions collate the capacities of individuals with a wider range of cultural resources like art, objects and the built environment.

Its approach builds on a theory in which learning is very optimal. It strives to raise art awareness quotient through informal means. The moderators look to evaluate how the various tools of art appreciation actually help children. Right now, Flow India is operating at the ground level, holding workshops for them. “By the time a workshop ends, the children develop the critical ability for recognizing colors and styles associated with an era or artist like Jackson Pollock or Amrita Sher-Gil,” Rose reveals.

A spotlight on India’s most accomplished contemporary photo artist

2011-12-28T22:55:00.000-08:00

Born in New Delhi in 1960, Dayanita Singh is recognized as one of India’s most accomplished contemporary photographers.

Making books is now her passion and she has collaborated with the prestigious Steidl press to create a number of titles, including the seven-volume ‘Sent A Letter’, named one of the 200 pivotal artworks produced in the past 25 years in Phaidon Press’s ‘Defining Contemporary Art’.

She reveals: “Many writers have influenced my work greatly. Some I could only read, some that I had the privilege of traveling and conversing with. They have influenced the shifts in my work and often my work has been addressed to them (in the book 'Sent a Letter').”

Her works have been presented in exhibitions throughout the world, most recently as a solo show at the Shiseido Gallery in Tokyo. In 2009, the Mapfre Foundation in Madrid organized a retrospective of her work that subsequently traveled to Amsterdam and Bogota. Her images of ‘File Rooms’ were featured prominently in the exhibition, entitled ‘Illuminazione’ that formed the centerpiece of the Venice Biennale earlier this year.

The celebrated artist has received many awards like the Prince Claus Award by the Netherlands government in 2008 for ‘her image of outstanding quality, providing a well-articulated view of contemporary India, and for introducing a new aesthetic into Indian photography’.

Her new body of works, entitled ‘House of Love’, is on view at Nature Morte, Gurgaon. Excerpts from it have been exhibited at the Peabody Museum, the Centre Pompidou in Paris and the Frieze Art Fair, London. The book by the same name (with texts by Aveek Sen; Publisher: Peabody Museum Press and Radius Press) is available at the gallery during the exhibition. This is her fifth solo with Nature Morte, the first being the exhibition 'Family Portraits' in 1998.

‘Verdant Vistas: The World of Surya Prakash’

2011-12-28T02:51:00.000-08:00

A solo exhibition of senior artist Surya Prakash takes place at Chawla Art Gallery, New Delhi.

Entitled ‘Verdant Vistas: The World of Surya Prakash’, the solo show brings out how this immensely skilled impressionist ably captures the picturesque native landscapes in varied glowing hues. There’s something dreamy and idealistic about the way he chooses the colors, the way they are combined and applied to the surface.

His illustrious career spans well over four decades. He has had several solo and group shows in India and abroad – at galleries in Poland, Germany, Russia, Hungary, the UK, Czechoslovakia, Syria, France, Iran, and the US. The recipient of gold medals from the Lalit Kala Akademi, Andhra Pradesh and the Hyderabad Art Society, he has also received the National Award. Importantly, the artist has been in the forefront of his home state’s art movement, organizing camps and workshops et al.

This multifaceted artist constantly imbibes techniques and other finer aspects of painterly processes from other senior painters, evolving his own style in the process. Keen to experiment, he has expanded his oeuvre by encompassing newer forms, colors, motifs and styles. In media and surface as well, Prakash continually experiments and furthers his reach, most recently trying his hand at etching.

The principal concern of his art practice is the nature in all its facets that he perceives and depicts on canvas in an inimitable style. His semi-realistic albeit meticulous representation of foliage and flowers, are like the skilful impressionists’ works, deftly marked by layered colors and exquisitely rendered textures.

However, the impressionistic movement was not the only European influence that touched this talented artist’s work. In his series of canvases like ‘Barren Leaves’, one could notice a definite surrealistic force. A Dali-esque feel to the larger than life autumnal leaves delicately floating to the ground is evident in most of his paintings.

Analyzing an even earlier series of works ‘Jargon of the Junk’, one could notice the convoluted metal forms he uses as subjects. In fact, they alluded to the style of the Fauvists and Bacon, and also of the late Indian artist, Tyeb Mehta - a facet that can be traced in the works on view.

'Eyes on Life: Drawings of Satish Gujral'

2011-12-27T13:17:00.000-08:00

A truly multi-faceted art practitioner, Satish Gujral has worked in a wide array of media and has explored diverse forms in painting, metal and burnt wood sculptures, murals, public art and architecture.

Human suffering central to his practice in the beginning gradually gave way to a feel of tranquility and peace. He was more inspired by the jubilant aspects of human life than its pain and misery from around 1960s onward. No surprise, he envisioned hope in actions, and chose to depict them in a descriptive mode, leaving behind a touch of enigma.

An accompanying note to 'Eyes on Life: Drawings of Satish Gujral' at Aakriti Art Gallery, Kolkata states: “Satish Gujral makes the fascinating figures heroic not out of any sense of grand achievement, but out of their plain admission of the rather ordinary and unassuming gestures. It’s precisely this quality, which makes them so special, so buoyant for the artist.”

So what’ s the secret of his passion to create diverse forms of art? “When you are consistently engaged in creative activity, it fills you up with a zest to carry on. I neither give titles nor ideas, so that you (the viewers) need to find your own truth,” he has once stated. “I wouldn’t say I am a modernist or traditionalist. I just believe in what I see.”

According to him, an artist’s style becomes his identity, but it cannot be stretched beyond a point. Summing up the spirit of his continual quest for excellence, Satish Gujral quips: “Novelty challenges the mind; it makes you think. One can discover new things every day, everywhere. The acceptance of one style only nudged me to find something I had not as yet experimented with, one that may refresh my excitement. Personal excitement is what I seek to get out of my creativity...”

In recognition of his artistic achievements the President of India honored him with the second highest civilian award, Padma Vibhushan, in 1999.

A multi-faceted, veteran artist presents his delightful drawings

2011-12-27T01:12:00.000-08:00

One among India’s living legends, veteran artist Satish Gujral has dominated the Indian art scene for over six decades. He has left an indelible mark in almost every conceivable form and medium of expression, and has rightfully received acclaim internationally during his illustrious career. He has conceived architectural marvels like a palace in Riyadh for Saudi Arabia’s royal family; created sculptures out of burnt wood.

There are murals at Shastri Bhavan in Delhi and Gandhi Bhawan in Chandigarh that reflect his love for public art. The Belgian Government honored him with the prestigious "ORDER OF THE CROWN" for astounding design of the Belgian Embassy. He has also been among the first artists from India to work on paper collages.

Satish Gujral’s earlier drawings struck a chord with those who, like the artist himself, had passed through agonizing times of the Partition and its blood-filled aftermath. Laced with a deep humanistic concern and a strong expressionist verve, they brought back to our consciousness the latent pain and despair.

However, his present set of drawings on view at Kolkata’s Aakriti Art Gallery, unfold a totally different approach. Created over a period from 2005 to the year 2011, the delightful works exude exuberance and gaiety etched elegantly, as it were, into the very groove of the captivating contour lines of the objects and figures. His sense of humor, which eschews sarcasm and illuminates geniality, is another noteworthy element of the new set of drawings.

In these deft drawings the firm albeit resilient lines quite paradoxically harbor marks of asatute austerity and control. The mood tends to swing between intensive effort and playfulness. In many of the drawings, the human figures seem to have been trapped in a sort of visual trance. They exude a quality of a freeze-shot or at times, a halted moment.

Thus stillness and resonance become their hallmarks. Figures, in these delightful drawings are engaged in some strange activities. The mode of lyrical representation harks back to a wistful time, a naive nostalgic psyche that hovers, as it would be, on a somewhat undefined neutral territory.

Sudarshan Shetty’s ‘Letters on the floor’

2011-12-26T09:16:00.000-08:00

An internationally known artist, Sudarshan Shetty, employs a deft mix of traditional and contemporary imagery and motifs like ancient symbols, political graffiti and cinema posters in his work. His work can be, simultaneously, mischievous and ironic.

Born in 1956 in Kerala, he did his 1981 Diploma in Painting from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum; a Post Diploma (Printmaking) from Faculty of Fine Arts, M.S. University of Baroda; and a degree in Fine Arts (Painting) from College of Fine Arts, Trivandrum. A recipient of Civitella Ranieri Foundation Fellowship, Perugia, Italy (2004); he has served residency programs courtesy the Noosa City Council Gallery, an Indo-Australian Exchange Residency; Ruskin School of Drawing & Fine Arts, Oxford on a Charles Wallace Grant.

Sudarshan Shetty’s new solo takes place at GallerySKE, Bangalore. Entitled ‘Listen Outside This House’, the works are woven around words too. Penned by the artist himself, the fictive texts are essentially rooted in his own past and specific context. In fact, these pithy narratives act as the launching point from where he initiates a deep evocation of objects.

There are total eight installations on view. There’s, for example, a dilapidated monument’s replica delicately carved in wood. The structure is apparently on the verge of collapse. It has some text written on its floor. In another installation that forms part of the display a photographic slide is shown. In it the artist searches for words in the city, whereas yet another work incorporates passages drawn from the mythological epics like Mahabharata and Ramayana.

Though inherently personal in nature, the writing form is in third person. Everything is charted out almost purposefully, from a neutral perspective, from a distance. At times mischievous and at others inquiring, his work can be both thought-provoking and entertaining. Thanks to the layers of meaning in each canvas, his oeuvre is often looked upon as a cultural encyclopaedia.

His latest solo continues at GallerySKE until January 28, 2012.

An exploration of works made in sequences or as sets

2011-12-25T21:26:00.000-08:00

Nature Morte presents a new group show, entitled, 'Serial Pursuits’, at its Berlin venue. It includes works in various media by artists David Mabb, Manisha Parekh, Dayanita Singh and Audiobombing Crew.

In Manisha Parekh’s new gouache paintings and graphite drawings on paper, her imagery is bio-morphic and seemingly automatic. Successive images build into a canon of identity and cultural inheritance, both Indian and international.

Audiobombing Crew, founded by Markus Zull and Stephan Ebersthäuser in 2003, creates serial sound loops, which are collaged together from analogue sources. The duo works with technical defects and their dynamic manipulation. By mixing Indian pop songs sourced from Bollywood musicals and spoken audio materials, the artists develop sound loops whose repetitive nature resembles the tone of ancient mantras.

Dayanita Singh's work 'Museum of Innocence (The Madras Chapter)' is a photographic portrait of the MGR Memorial House in Chennai, India. The former private residence of M.G. Ramachandran is now a museum that commemorates the beloved Tamil actor and politician, where his personal belongings are displayed as relics. Singh uses the camera’s special ability to capture loss to create the memory of a memory held up by a lattice of formal repetition.

In David Mabb’s works, namely 'Rhythm 69' and 'Two Squares', various wallpaper and fabric designs of William Morris are spliced together with the avant-garde art of El Lissitzky and Hans Richter. Presented as paintings arranged in formalist grids which mimic the regulative practices of industrial production, his smash-ups of the now haute-bourgeois decorative motifs and the once radical but now sentimentalized utopian experiments are steeped in the irony implicit in negotiating a politicized art practice today.

The London-based artist has exhibited widely in both solo and group exhibitions at venues like the Liverpool Biennial, the Delaware Centre for the Contemporary Arts, and Leo Kamen Gallery in Toronto.

Nature Morte presents works by Thukral & Tagra

2011-12-25T01:26:00.000-08:00

Gallery Nature Morte presents a solo exhibition by the dynamic artist duo of Thukral & Tagra in its gallery space situated in the Gurgaon-based Oberoi hotel’s luxury retail arcade.

The artist collective Thukral & Tagra present their work under the trade name of Bosedk Design. The Anglicization of an abusive term in Punjabi, Bosedk can be read as an adolescent stance taken in defiance of all that is serious and adult, ensuring that the artists never take themselves too seriously.

Jiten Thukral (born 1976, Jalandhar) and Sumir Tagra (born 1979, New Delhi) have been working collaboratively since 2002. Trained in both Fine Art and Design, their practice runs the range from paintings, sculptures and installations to product and interior design. This is their second solo exhibition with Nature Morte in New Delhi.

Recent solo exhibitions of their works have been mounted at the Ullens Center for Contemporary Art in Beijing, the Arario Gallery in Seoul and the Singapore Tyler Print Institute (all 2010). Upcoming projects include a solo show at the Tokyo Gallery in Japan (April) and participation in a large-scale exhibition of Indian contemporary art at the Centre Pompidou in Paris (May).

A curatorial note to their new show mentions: “The desires, fantasies, hopes and dreams of The Great Indian Middle Class converge into an installation steeped in saccharine sweetness and morbid longing. Thukral & Tagra, living and working in Gurgaon, paint pictures of the garishly inappropriate mini-mansions that pop up like weeds all around them in this precocious satellite city of New Delhi.

But these paeans to conspicuous consumption are not rooted in the soils of Mother India. Rather, they float on clouds of limpid pastels, trussed up by gossamer threads and floral tributes, more Heaven than Home, their facades of an ersatz Classicism and unrecognizable references signaling a whole-hearted embrace of a Post-Modern Globalization.

Both seem to wallow in the contradictions, lathering on the Kitsch with a sardonic wink that acknowledges the ancestry of European Surrealism in the construction of the contemporary Indian identity, the vampiric relationship between fashion and prestige which has come to define our domiciles."

(Image courtesy: Nature Morte)

Indian artists will continue to attract global spotlight

2011-12-24T18:43:00.000-08:00

India’s many promising contemporary artists and internationally acclaimed artists continue to find favor with collectors and/ or investors. Indian art and artists have truly gone global with a string of shows – solo as well as group – involving both established and emerging artists.

Global art auction houses and event directors are giving a place of pride to practitioners from the country, leaving an indelible mark on the international art scene. Indeed, contemporary Indian art and artists have gone global with a string of shows. We take a quick look at some of the internationally acclaimed artists who will continue to find favor with collectors and/ or investors.

Artists belonging to the new-age, dynamic India, greatly influenced by global developments in contemporary art thanks to greater exposure to the international art world, work in a diverse range genres, styles, subjects and mediums. Importantly, they are striving to maintain a balanced relationship with Western art based on an identity deeply rooted in the rich artistic and cultural traditions of the country.

With the sun just rising on the horizon of the Indian art world, it's time to soak into the creative journey of emerging talent! We provide you a glimpse of some of the most promising artists from. Highly talented contemporary Indian artists have attained appreciation and applause on the international art scene for their propensity to express current concerns through quaint and recognizable motifs.

Through their art, the sensitive practitioners make a genuine effort to archive the times and document the ever changing dynamics of modern mindscape and cityscape from a broader perspective, not restricted to gender alone. Their work represents a collective spirit to reflect, contemplate and at the same, innovate, in terms of style and subject matter. Here are some of the noteworthy female artists who have won the nod of collectors and critics…

Favorable wind blowing in the art markets

2011-12-24T00:40:00.000-08:00

Amidst all the gloom and doom around, a big boost to the world art market came in the form of Sotheby's rounding out New York's major fall auctions with a sale that fetched 315.8 million of contemporary and postwar art -well over its high estimate of $270 million. It was the third-highest sale total achieved by its contemporary art dept. (Its peak is at $362 million evening sale in 2008.)

"The sale blew every expectation away," said Tobias Meyer, Sotheby's worldwide head of contemporary art who also served as auctioneer. Art market observer Adam Lindemann’s take on the stratospheric prices achieved was something like this: “If it (the art market) could speak, it would have cackled and then quoted Mark Twain by stating, ‘the rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated.’ Most of the artworks successfully found new homes at reasonable if not modestly bullish prices.

"So what’s my advice to those intrepid collectors committed to moving forward? These days I’ll take my cue from the wisdom of old Ben Franklin, who once said, Believe none of what you hear and half of what you see...” An article by The ET Bureau, emphasizing the growing faith in contemporary art in billionaires, pointed out: “The reasons are as abstract as the subject on sale but millionaires, billionaires and collectors with ready cash seem to be racing to the art market to buy what they think is more tangible than any other available investment options.

The article quoted Associate Vice President (Specialist, Post-War and Contemporary Art and Head of Evening Sales), Koji Inoue, as saying: “This strong trend will continue in the market," over phone. "I think it is has been spurred by collectors who are not really looking at art as an investment. It is more buoyed by a powerful store value. They weren't necessary speculators and as they were offered with a once in a lifetime opportunity, they could not let it pass on, no matter what the economic standards are."

Growth trajectory of Indian and Chinese art

2011-12-24T00:35:00.000-08:00

Leading art research firm ArtTactic’s market confidence on the eve of 2011 report had given a thumbs-up to Indian modern art, albeit expressing a touch of caution about the contemporaries. The analyst firm’s Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator then had shown a good recovery largely on the back of stronger secondary/ auction market for Modern Indian art. What does its latest report indicate?

According to it, the confidence in the Indian Modern art market still remains reasonably high, in spite of negative economic outlook globally. The overall Indian Art Market Confidence Indicator of ArtTactic is down by more than 25% (28%, to be precise) from six months ago. But this is more to do with macro-economic factors and the waning confidence in the Indian economy, which drops by a significant 69%.

However, most experts are still strongly positive about state of the Indian Modern art market, with a streak of confidence gradually creeping back into the strength of contemporary Indian art market, as well. Giving an overview of the auction scene, the report mentions: “The last round of Indian art auctions (in September 2011) was a lackluster affair, with the final sale figures coming in 17% below the low-end of its pre-sale estimate range of 885,120 to 989,475. However, the total (although it failed to reach the pre-sale expectations) managed to halt the steady decline in sales volume that the market has experienced for more than a year.”

On the other hand, the broader Chinese Contemporary Art Market Confidence Indicator maintained a positive bias, in spite of the drastic drop in the contemporary art market confidence level, internationally. The Contemporary Art Market Confidence indicator of China presently stands at 80. It’s the highest reading of all the Market Confidence Indicators released by ArtTactic Art; that of US and Europe is 35, whereas India is doing much better (though not as well as China) with its the Market Confidence Indicator reading at 53.

However, this market confidence as far as China is concerned, might face a stress test, so to say, in the next 6 months. Experts are a bit concerned about the sustainability of the present growth rate. Close to half of those (49%) surveyed (up from just 17% of in April 2011) feel the Chinese contemporary art market will be flat in the next 6 months.

Corroborating this undercurrent of thought, Colin Gleadell of The UK Telegraph suggested in a recent news report, tracking Asian art (that of China in particular) sales figures attained by Bonhams and Christie’s London that some steam sure has gone out of the Chinese market as quite a few of the higher valued lots were unsold in November 2011.

What draws collector/investors to Indian art?

2011-12-23T18:45:00.000-08:00

Apart from the investment angle, in sheer aesthetic and thematic terms, Indian art is drawing the global attention. Economic growth and urbanization coupled with the increasing intervention of cutting-edge technologies have dramatically altered India’s socio-economic landscape over the last couple of decades.

New foreign influences infiltrate, collide and intertwine with the country’s rich traditions and ancient values that still remain unchanged. Socially sensitive, talented contemporary artists highlight this irony through their practice placed in a global context in a range of artistic media from painting, sculpture, and photography to installation and video art.

Their themes are intimately linked with the local ethos and they tactfully assess the impact of globalization and other pressure points for drastic change in a society still heavily reliant on tradition. The brain behind Outset India, a platform to draw private funding for art in India, Feroze Gujral, mentioned in an interview with The Hindustan Times: “The contemporary Indian art scene is growing at a fast pace, second only to China. It is considered as a serious business with a turnover of over $350 million in 2011. It is an investment taken very seriously by all. Our country has immense potential to flourish in this space.”

Despite adverse global conditions the auction scene gradually gathered momentum, and maintained its positive bias throughout 2011. The leading market players focused on quality works in order to target the discerning buyers’ category. In conclusion, this is not a market for those looking to make quick money, but perfect for committed collectors, ready to pick the quality works on offer at attractive prices.

For example, online art auction house Saffronart’s '24-Hour Absolute Auction of Contemporary Indian Art' fetched Rs 2.44 crore ($510,194) of sales. This auction featured 85 lots of which Subodh Gupta's 'Untitled' sold for Rs 72 lakh ($150,000). In an Absolute Auction, each lot is won by the highest bidder at the time of closing, irrespective of the bid amount and has no reserve prices. On the other hand, an IndiaBull auction logged 100% sales beating estimates.

Top 5 over-hyped or international artists

2011-12-22T19:07:00.000-08:00

“Contemporary artists are more ‘collectible’ than old masters: there’s more of their art out there, you can party with them, you can even hope to discover geniuses before they get ‘hot’. One downside is that, because the competition’s so stiff, prices can lose all touch with reality.

Here are five highly touted artists as listed by that won’t turn out to be great investments,” observes art market analyst Blake Gopnik who also lists the top 5 over-hyped or international artists. Here’s a quick look at them courtesy The Newsweek and The Daily Beast:

1. Neo Rauch: This German painter, a founder of the so-called Leipzig school, makes perfectly sweet, semi-surreal canvases with a dab of fifties nostalgia. They’d make great greeting cards. Rauch’s ‘Suche’ sold at Christie’s for $1,082,500 in May 2010.

2. Wangechi Mutu: A minor collage artist, he who glues up fragments of magazines, sometimes with sequins thrown in. The results look splashy and have the hint of an edge, but the work will never be important, despite her prices. ‘A Little Thought for All Ya’ll …’ sold at Christies for $400,002 in 2008.

3. Damien Hirst: He is truly one of the greats of our time, but his greatness lies in his entire career, and the way he’s turned selling out into art. A few of the sculptures
have significant presence, but any single painting—one ‘spot’ picture, for
instance, among the scores that he’s made—counts as closer to a memento than a
masterpiece. A Hirst spot painting called Dantrolene sold at Sotheby’s for
$1,105,250 in June 2011.

4. John Currin: He makes cartoony figures that sometimes have a hint of pornography. He’s praised for his skills with the brush, but it won’t be long before it becomes clear that he’s just one more realist illustrator. Currin’s ‘Nice ’N Easy’ sold at Sotheby’s for $5,458,500 in November 2008.

5. Richard Prince: Long ago, in the 1970s, he was a great artist. The ads that he copied and presented as art helped change the course of art history. Since then, he’s made absurd numbers of splashy paintings—the Nurses, the Jokes, the Checks—that only a collector could love and that will soon be forgotten. Prince’s ‘Country Nurse’ sold for $2.9 million in June 2009.

‘Passageway’ concerned with the concurrence of the material and the immaterial.

2011-12-22T05:49:00.000-08:00

Mumbai-based Chemould Prescott Road - in association with Galerie Mirchandani + Steinruecke, IFA, and the Goethe Institut Mumbai - presents passageway, the first solo of internationally renowned German artist Wolfgang Laib in India.

Several iconic, almost mythic, identities define Laib: his training to be a doctor, his hermetic living and working practices, and his serious study of Eastern and pre–Modern religions including Buddhism, Jainism, and medieval Christianity.

Born 1950 in Metzingen, Germany, Wolfgang Laib studied Medicine at the University of Tuebingen, before choosing to become an artist. His work has been exhibited extensively at leading galleries and museums worldwide. A solo exhibition is scheduled for 2013 at the MoMA in New York. Wolfgang Laib lives in Biberach an der Riss, Germany.

The exhibition includes several important works, including his monumental beeswax boats which bear the title of the exhibition and the minimalist black sculpture titled ‘Stairs’. All his works, says Laib, are concerned with the concurrence of the material and the immaterial. His forms and his artistic process are extreme in their concentrated quietude.

The artist has been quoted as saying: “I am not afraid of beauty, unlike most artists today. The pollen, the milk, the beeswax, they have a beauty that is incredible, that is beyond the imagination, something which you cannot believe is a reality–and it is the most real. I could not make it myself, I could not create it myself, but I can participate in it. Trying to create it yourself is only a tragedy, participating in it is a big chance.”

His work – although it concentrates on a few select materials which are sourced from nature such as rice, pollen, milk and beeswax – is not about naturalism. It is about the material itself, about the intense experience of the material in a neutral environment. The intensity of the artist’s materials not only has to do with their color and substance, but also with their intrinsic quality as a source of vital energy. The Milkstone is one of the seminal works that establish the tone of his practice.

‘Words: A User’s Manual’ at Exhibit 320

2011-12-22T00:12:00.000-08:00

The French novelist Georges Perec, in playing out a lipogram, penned a novel ‘La Disparition’ in 1969, sans the letter ‘e’. Anton Vowl, his protagonist cannot blink an eyelid and sleep peacefully until he actually discovers a missing link. A new group show, entitled ‘Words: A User’s Manual’, sets out to address a similar quandary.

In a meticulously put together exhibition, curator-writer Himali Singh Soin tries to elevate text from its mundane functionality to be the eclectic work of art. Soin has brought together an interesting mix of artists to present a pleasantly surprising range of creations by the Raqs Media Collective, Sarnath Banerjee and Zuleikha Chaudhari to young practitioners like typographer Hanif Kureshi and Prayas Abhinav, one who has been employing experimental media arts in engaging ways.

Each of the participating artists aptly and uniquely responded to the curatorial theme to create works over the last six months or so. For example, a four-panelled Flux machine by Hanif Kureshi is changing constantly, tricking viewers as it does. An array of peculiar four-letter words pop up, starting from ‘cure’ to ‘pose’ and ‘fare’, apparently ridding the words and the things they stand for of any inherent meaning.

Sarnath Banerjee’s, ‘I Lost My Wedding Ring Behind Harrod’s’, drawings of memories of those lost objects, is probably pièce de résistance of the show. He and the curator asked their friends to revive and respond with the nagging memory of any lost object. More than twenty such written testimonials are there on view - from lost lovers to lost cardigans —with illustrations accompanying them.

On the other hand, ’The Philosophy of the Namak Haram’ by Raqs Media Collective makes a rather silent statement. The installation is a secluded reading room carrying books with the ‘unwritten word’. However, they don’t really exist (a photograph does!). The wall texts form an intrinsic aspect of the whole exhibition experience. Just like for the ‘Flux machine’, the curator notes, “Your timing is perfect: everything’s about to change...”

‘Words: A User’s Manual’ is on view at New Delhi-based Exhibit 320.

Artistic reinterpretation of strong feminist icons

2011-12-21T14:30:00.000-08:00

Contemporarily seen as one of the most respected female painters of the Baroque, the majority of Artemisia Gentileschi’s paintings feature women as the principle figures and protagonists, which she borrowed primarily from biblical allegories like ‘The Book of Judith’. A new group exhibition at New Delhi-based Latitude 28 is inspired by her key boy of work.

Elaborating on the display, a press release states that it’s a representation of the reinterpretation of strong feminist icons through the use of historical and religious iconography to convey female empowerment in contemporary society. The distinctive use of ‘promiscuous imagery’ and violence symbolize a positive rebellion against the suppression of women as sexually and politically empowered beings. It adds:

Gentileschi’ post-Caravaggio depiction of ‘Judith and Holofernes’ is one of the most iconic early images associated with Feminism. The painting illustrates the Old Testament parable from the Book of Judith. It’s a classic tale of heroism at its core, but what makes this work particularly unique is the autobiographical elements.

Her depiction of the biblical, Judith represents her own struggle with her rapist, Agostino Tassi, as well as the lack of subsequent charges brought against him. Tassi was sentenced to one year in prison, time which he never served, and the events of her abuse culminated in lifelong inspiration for Gentileschi.

All the works in the group show is dually inspired by a female heroine and the artist herself as a strong female figure within the context of her own society. For instance, Anjali Bhargava’s work (Suffocation Series 2010) explores the different portrayals and physical attributes associated with Devi. The use of sensuality and seduction to convey divine beauty is representative of the somewhat confused societal expectations of mortal women.

Chitra Ganesh’s work pays homage to Rani of Jhansi - the warrior queen of India, and the counterpart to western heroines such as Judith and Joan d'Arc. Divya Mehra’s PANTS demonstrates the dominance and suppression of women in historically patriarchal societies. Samira Abbassy and Sangeeta Sandrasegar's works explore the power of femininity and strength in goddesses such as Kali and Durga within the Hindu context, while applying autobiographical elements to their illustrations.

An expression of suppressed female sentiments and sensuality

2011-12-21T12:34:00.000-08:00

A thought-provoking show at Latitude 28 in the capital city of India has a strong feminist undertone to it, as explained by curator Jasmine Wahi as follows:

With respect to women, as one can see through a wide range of diverse cultural outlets, there has been an overvaluation of chastity, virginity, demureness, and subdued behavior. Freedom of sexual expression, aggression, intelligence, and creativity have been stifled and smothered. Women who are overt and expressive have been (and are often today) frowned upon, if not shunned and rejected.

Divya Mehra's video piece ‘PANTS’ (2006) is the only piece in the show that exemplifies the not-so-long-ago suppression of women as independent beings. Although it is darkly humorous in execution, the piece explores the negative perception and fear borne by a woman acting like a man (wearing pants, drinking, venturing out alone).

The chastity belt was not a practical means for population control or to maintain 'purity,' which is itself an arbitrary concept. In fact, this stylish and popular contraption was merely a way to control a woman's physical freedoms. Shweta Bhattad's multimedia chastity belts, particularly ‘Releasing Suppressed Emotions 1’, utilize the shape of the vaginal prison; they, however, subvert the original intention of the object into a platform for personal expression and conquering that which suppresses us, through our own inner strength.

The prevalence of mixed-gender attributes in the divine is quite common, not only in Hinduism, but also among several other religious factions. The glaringly obvious examples being Judith, Athena, and Kali- as depicted in both Samira Abbassy's painting ‘Kali's Mirror’ and Sangeeta Sandrasegar's circumambulatory work (2011). Abbassy's ovular work again reverts back to the depiction of a violent and vengeful wrath. The braided youth to the left of the guillotined figure holds up a mirror, indicating either self-admiration or self-reflection. Sandrasegar's work is also a tribute to Kali and Durga.

Anjali Bhargava's ‘Suffocation Series’ (2009) also alludes to the goddess, as an homage to the sensuality and perfection of the divine. This feminist rebellion is expressed through blatant displays of eroticism reinforced in ‘And the falchion passed through his neck…’ with Samira Abbassy's ‘Mother of Silences, Seer of the Unseen’ - in which there is clear female dominance, and perhaps an allusion to sexual sadism. Hamra Abbass' series of nine performance photographs, ‘Paradise Bath’ (2009) also alludes to power play through the act of washing or cleansing a woman in the ritual of bathing.

Artemisia Gentileschi's work inspires a new show

2011-12-21T10:37:00.000-08:00

‘And The Falchion Passed Through His Neck’, a new group exhibition curated by Jasmine Wahi, takes place at New Delhi-based Latitude 28. Here are excerpts from the curatorial essay:

When I was still in the nascent stages of my art history love affair, I encountered Artemisia Gentileschi, an Italian artist from the early seventeenth century who inspired me not only as a student hungering for controversy in art, but also as a budding women's activist.

Though there are still many areas where women are denied these basic rights, we have come far from where we were several centuries before. The matriarchs of art have brought us where we are today, and drawing from their strength, today's creative and empowered women are able to continue pushing forward for universal practice of freedoms for all.

This exhibition is an acknowledgement of progression from the social confines of the past and a look at the 'rebellious' imagery that continues to push us forward. It is a reinterpretation of the historical, religious and social views of women. Each work approaches overtly sexually suggestive or pugnacious imagery as a means to convey female empowerment in contemporary society. The distinctive use of ‘promiscuous’ symbolism and violence serves as a positive rebellion against the suppression of women as sexually and politically empowered beings. Gentileschi's 'Judith Beheading Holofernes' (circa 1612), has served as the springboard for this exhibition.

Samira Abbassy's ‘Infidelity’ (2009), is another pseudo-self-portrait that takes a page from Gentileschi's justifiably vengeful painting. In Abbassy's image, an unidentified, yet remarkably Holofernes-like figure's head rests haphazardly on the floor. Abbassy's aesthetic draws from ancestral techniques employed by miniaturists. She rejects conventional perspectives of foreground and background and instead ranks the prominence and power of each figure by size. The employment of size variations is subtle fodder indicating the dominance of the female figure.

Chitra Ganesh's self portrait as Rani of Jhansi (2005), the woman warrior of India who led a siege against the British, is another exemplification of a 'hurrah!' moment in women's history. Although she is slain in this image, I see it not as a tragic print, but as an empowering instance of dynamic perseverance.

Indian art shows in 2011- I

2011-12-20T14:40:00.000-08:00

Many of the world’s leading and most prestigious modern art museums hosted ambitious exhibitions that threw light on complexities and subtle undercurrents of contemporary Indian society, now more dynamic and creative than ever, still full of contrasts.

The year started on a near-perfect note as far as Indian art is concerned with several solo and group shows by several renowned artists. In fact, the momentum for dazzling art displays was carried over from the previous year’s shows extending into 2011 like ‘ Samtidigt (Concurrent)’ courtesy Kulturhuset, Stockholm that gave a sense of the atmosphere and situation in India today while simultaneously revealing strong connections to its history.

‘India Awakens - Under the Banyan Tree’ (Curator: Alka Pande) at Vienna’s Essl Museum presented 34 young artists with a focus on contemporary currents and tendency. ‘Concurrent India’ at Helsinki City Art Museum in Finland featured works, dealing with power structures that govern the actions of the individual.

California based-San Jose Museum of Art presented a landmark show of modern & contemporary art from India, entitled ‘Roots in the Air, Branches Below’. A meticulous survey of recent art from India, it showcased works that mapped the dramatic economic and social transformation of the country since its independence.

The grand traveling exhibit, entitled Indian Highway IV’, continues its journey across 3 continents: Europe, South America and Asia. After London (Serpentine Gallery), Oslo (Astrup Fearnley Museet), Herning (Museum of Contemporary Art) it now comes to Lyon.

Artist TV Santhosh’s first solo exhibition ‘The Land’ in Berlin was held at Nature Morte in collaboration with The Guild. A solo by Rashid Rana at London-based Lisson Gallery highlighted large-scale photographic works that he considers ‘unpacking abstraction’. Sara Hildén Art Museum in Finland hosted by Subodh Gupta, whom it described as ‘the superstar of India's contemporary art’, and also among the most important names in international contemporary art, at present.

Indian art shows in 2011- II

2011-12-20T12:45:00.000-08:00

As we moved well and truly into 2011, contemporary Indian art continued its march with a series of significant shows. '21st Century: Art in the First Decade' at Queensland Art Gallery marks the end of this millennium’s first decade. The ambitious project at renowned art space in Brisbane focuses on works created and acquired specifically in this period.

Chicago based Walsh Gallery hosted a ‘Monumental’ show, involving top contemporary artists, true to its title. Largely a collection of founder Julie Walsh, the showcase divided into three major categories: personal narrative, specific historical events and current events through works by Subodh Gupta, Jitish Kallat, Atul Dodiya and Ravinder Reddy.

The idea behind ‘Paris-Delhi–Bombay’ courtesy The Centre Pompidou was to create awareness of the Indian art and culture scene to the people of France, and to bind two contrasting streams of thought, in the process. Curated by Sophie Duplaix and Fabrice Bousteau, it presented a new, exciting image of an emerging India, moving away from the stereotypes, to witness rapid transitions and transformations.

A host of talented female Indian artists seemed to be flavor of the season, in the second half of the year. Bharti Kher’s solo ‘Live Your Smell’, takes place at Galerie Emmanuel Perrotin in Paris was based on the premise of allegory.
Simultaneously ‘In Transit’ by Mithu Sen was hosted at Espace Louis Vuitton, Taipei.
Galerie Dominique Fiat in Paris presented a solo show of new works, entitled ‘Babel’, by Anita Dube, an artist known for extending the visible thin line wherein words tend to act as corporeal manifestos to comment on the world around, as seen and perceived by her.

The Musée Guimet, also based in Paris, presents recent works by Rina Banerjee as part of its ongoing spring-summer 2011 Indian Season. ‘There is a spider living between us’ at Montreal’s La Centrale marked Tejal Shah’s debut solo in Canada. Meanwhile, another significant show at Hauser & Wirth (New York) incorporated recent works by Subodh Gupta, who turned his attention to instruments of measurement - those related to the food & drink– as metaphors in a chimerical visual poem about global appetite.

Indian art shows in 2011- III

2011-12-20T05:48:00.000-08:00

In another indication of its growing stature in the domain of art internationally, the special Pavilion of India at the Venice Biennale represented diverse visual idioms, ideascapes and constituencies, reflecting immense plurality of the world’s largest democracy. Praneet Soi, Zarina Hashmi, The Desire Machine Collective (Sonal Jain & Mriganka Madhukaillya), and Gigi Scaria, selected by curator Ranjit Hoskote stood for a gamut of aesthetically rich and conceptually rigorous practices staged in parallel to the mainstream art market.

The 2011 Prague Biennale comprised a ‘Crossroads: India Escalate’ segment curated by Kanchi Mehtam, who wanted to represent the way contemporary Indian art scene is shaping up, imbibing an array of influences from the life and people around, to analyze them with an open mind. ‘The Word of God Series’ at The Andy Warhol Museum located in Pittsburgh, which examined major world religions and their texts through contemporary art, featured Chitra Ganesh.

Even as the year drew to close, global galleries and museums continued to host exhibitions, striving to redefine Asian consciousness in context of both individual and collective identity as well as investigating philosophical and cultural concerns.

‘Window in the Wall: India and China – Imaginary Conversations’ courtesy Shanghai-based Pearl Lam Fine Arts curated by Gayatri Sinha and Gao Minglu incorporated thought-provoking works of art by several established and talented artists from India. ‘Generation in Transition: New Art from India’ at Zacheta National Gallery of Art in Warszawa, Poland included works by several noteworthy artists.

A series of meticulously curated and thoughtfully conceived showcases all through 2011 refer to an intriguing mix of media and themes, forms and subject matter explored by emerging as well as established artists, to signify the spirit and ethos of new-age India, laced with a touch of tradition. During the whole year, they have been increasingly prominent in the global spheres of contemporary art. It witnessed a series of quality shows right through; here’s a quick wrap-up!

Ram Kumar to be honored by LKA, Delhi

2011-12-19T16:55:00.000-08:00

Lalit Kala Akademi, New Delhi, is organizing a special function to honor eminent artist Ram Kumar on his being elected as Fellow of the Akademi on Saturday, 24 December 2011 at Sahitya Akademi Auditorium, Rabindra Bhavan, Delhi.

Among the top names from India’s modern art movement, Ram Kumar is well-renowned for his ephemeral landscapes.The extreme irony in the life around reflects in his paintings. If his Benares series is a haunting meditation on death, the landscape paintings focus on brighter side of life. The vibrant colors and shimmering surfaces exude a sense of restless vitality. His paintings denote the desolation or sense of loss.

In his early works, the painter opted for an elegiac figuration, exuding the excruciating spirit of tragic Modernism. Infused with a great ideological fervor, he dedicated himself to constructing an iconography of victimhood and depression. The paintings imbued with a touch of melancholic Realism not only reflected his acute disillusionment with the anonymity and monotony of urban existence, but also alluded to the dejection with unfulfilled promises after India’s Independence.

He was greatly inspired by its mystical imagery of day-to-day life in Varanasi. When he first went there almost five decades ago, he felt a haunting sense of hopelessness and desolation in the dimly lit, deserted lanes of a dark night. The starkness of this haunting experience only grew with every subsequent trip to the holy city. These impressions marked a major transition in his thought process and practice.

Prayag Shukla and Yashodhara Dalmia will speak about the artist. A documentary film ‘Ram Kumar: Nostalgic Longing’ produced by Lalit Kala Akademi and Directed by Laurent Bregeat Will be screened.

The Lalit Kala Akademi (National Academy of Fine Art) is the premier fine art institution of the Government of India to promote, spread and develop Indian fine art culture. In pursuance of its role, LKA holds exhibitions, institutes scholarships, fellowships, Lifetime Achievement Awards, and publishes documentary material. It also conducts Trienale India, and the National Exhibition of Photography and Art.